Piccolo's Choice
by saucemonkey
Summary: AU, Piccolo had finally done it, he had killed Goku and Raditz, and done what his father could not. What changed that day? Piccolo could only feel more hate, and so continues his dark path of villainy.
1. Chapter 1: The Start of the End

**Chapter 1: The Start of the End**

Piccolo stood at the apex of a mountain, a deep look of disdain and hate across his face. It had been five years, almost to the day, that Goku had beaten him in the Worlds Martial Arts tournament. He remembered it all vividly; the fight was going his way until Goku pulled one last trick and struck Piccolo with such force that he fell into unconsciousness and was near death. That wasn't even the most humiliating part of the tournament either; it was after the fight was over when the largest blow of all was dealt to the Demon King's son.

Goku, in his self righteous way, saved Piccolo by feeding him a senzu bean. This single act was more devastating to Piccolo than anything that had ever been done to him, he had been saved by the one person whom he hated the most, and it was due to that single moment that Piccolo dedicated his life to training to defeat his nemesis. For five years now he'd been honing his skills, steeling himself for this battle, the one in which he would finally strike down his accursed opponent, the one who haunted him day after day. Piccolo remembered the last words that he had spoken to his opponent;

'_Mercy is a loathsome trait, and you will soon learn that I have no such weakness.' _This boast struck fear into the hearts of all that surrounded the area, all but Goku who stood firm, taunting Piccolo. _'When that glorious day arrives the whole world will be mine!' _Remembering these words causedPiccolo to grin. It reminded him of how much more powerful he was now, and how he would kill Goku and claim the wretched planet he had lived on for his own. However, before he had flown away, he left one final speech for Goku to hang onto, one that he hoped to have come true for those fools who had heard him say it.

'_I'll see you real soon, until then I'll see you in your nightmares!'_

Of course, he had not seen Goku for five years as he had needed that time to not only strengthen himself physically, but also mentally. During that time not once did he ever forgive or forget what Goku had done to him. Occasionally Piccolo would take to spying on Goku just to see how much stronger he had become, and Piccolo was not impressed by what he had seen. Goku had been too busy raising a family to train quite as much as Piccolo had, and the green warrior decided to use his time developing new techniques rather than brute strength.

More often than Piccolo would have liked, Goku came up in his thoughts. The sheer torment of his smiling face enraged Piccolo, who had desperately wanted to kill him and his friends for the longest time. He held off, however, because if he had learned anything from his encounter with Goku, it's that all good things take time. He was not yet ready to take on Goku when they fought at the Worlds Martial Arts tournament, but now, after all these years of pent up rage and aggression, Piccolo planned to strike.

However, an unknown circumstance would prevent him from acting.

While Piccolo thought, he felt something off in the distance. A massive energy, it was clear that it couldn't have been Goku, but someone had definitely surpassed his strength. An uneasy Piccolo flew down off of the mountain and onto a more flat surface, crossing his arms and honing in on this huge power of which he had never felt before.

Two things were clear as Piccolo sensed this unknown being. One was that whoever's power this was, it was not from Earth, and two was that whoever this was, their aura exuded malice and hatred.

As he began locking onto where exactly this power was coming from, Piccolo noticed that it was moving, and quickly.

"What the hell?" Piccolo asked aloud, wondering where exactly it was heading. A few seconds later and he had his answer; it was heading directly for Piccolo himself.

After only a minute or so of preparation and waiting, the long haired warrior landed behind Piccolo, who pretended to act disinterested.

"Who are you and what are you doing on _my _planet?" Piccolo asked this new fighter.

"You aren't Kakarot, your power level is similar, but he is somewhere else." He explained, getting ready to fly off. Piccolo stopped him in his tracks.

"I asked you a question you wretch, now you _better_ answer me!" Piccolo shouted, turning around and clenching his fists. The powerful enemy simply laughed, knowing that Piccolo had only a measly power level of around 300.

"My name is Raditz, and if you're smart you won't speak again green man." Raditz chuckled as he began to fly away.

"No one talks to me that way; I am the _ruler_ of this world!" Piccolo proclaimed, charging a ki attack and shooting the beam at Raditz. The warrior dodged the attack quickly, staring down at Piccolo with rage.

"How dare you! You insolent fool, I am a Saiyan warrior!" Raditz yelled towards Piccolo, who was slightly confused as to what this "Saiyan" was talking about "I will crush you!" Raditz then began to charge a ball of ki in his left hand, lowering himself to the ground and raising his left arm up.

'What the hell is he doing?' Piccolo asked himself, readying a ki attack as well.

"This is going to be fun!" Raditz shouted, beginning to throw the ball of charged ki at Piccolo "Double su-" An audible beep could be heard from the machine on Raditz face, and the Saiyan quickly lost control of the ball of ki. In fact, he had stopped everything and shot straight into the air, ignoring Piccolo's curses.

The green warrior stood completely dumfounded at what had just happened. Who was Kakarot? Why did this warrior have a tail? And why did he call himself a Saiyan? It wasn't clear, but what Piccolo knew was that Raditz was looking for a fighter of similar power to Piccolo, and the only person like that on this planet was Goku.

'Perhaps he can shed some light on this subject.' Piccolo thought to himself, 'and if not, it will be fun torturing him anyway.' He grinned as he contemplated ways of hurting Goku and his annoying friends, and finally blasted off towards Kame house where Goku's energy seemed to be coming from at the time.

* * *

Piccolo had made it just in time to witness Raditz stealing away Goku's child, the one who had the four star Dragon Ball atop his hat. Raditz had even knocked Goku flat without even trying. It was obvious that this Saiyan was quite powerful, perhaps even more than Piccolo had expected. Then a thought came into Piccolo's mind as he watched Raditz fly away with the screaming child, perhaps in order to take down this massive power he would have to work with the man whom he despised most out of all others.

The thought made him cringe, he had come there to torture the man, not enlist his aide, and yet when he thought further, no other option came to him. It was either team up with his old nemesis or try to take on this massively powerful individual by himself, which was an even that Piccolo was sure that he would not survive.

It was settled, as Goku's friends surrounded him, Piccolo spoke up and announced his presence.

"Listen up you worms, if you want to live I suggest you hear what I'm about to tell you." Most of the people in the area donned horrible faces of fear and anger.

"Oh this is just great!" Krillin shouted, infuriating Piccolo.

"I didn't come here to listen to your whining, cur!" The evil warrior shouted, silencing Krillin quite effectively "I came here for you Goku." Almost instantly Goku took up a fighting stance.

"I'm not interested in fighting you Piccolo." Goku shouted towards the green fighter "That guy just took my son, and I don't plan on wasting time to settle your grudge match!" He explained, causing all of his friends to nod in agreement. Piccolo chucked, bellowing an evil laugh that struck fear into everyone in the area.

"You fool, if I wanted you dead I would have killed you by now." Piccolo boasted, lowing himself to the ground. Many of the people cowered before Piccolo, everyone but Roshi and Goku, who stood firm. "No, I'm here to offer you a temporary truce." Goku looked confused for a moment, but shook it off and lowered his guard slightly.

"You want to work together?" Goku asked in astonishment, wondering if perhaps the son of the evil Demon King had somehow changed. Piccolo shook his head.

"I want to kill this guy, nothing more. It's obvious we can't kill him without our powers combined." The green skinned fighter explained, crossing his arms, waiting for a response. Some of the others didn't like the idea, however.

"Oh come on Goku, don't listen to him! Remember what happened last time we fought this guy?" Krillin shouted, gaining Goku's attention "he nearly killed you! Nearly killed all of us!" The bald man had a point, but Goku needed to get his son back, and if working with Piccolo was the only way to do it that he was going to have to trust his nemesis.

"I know Krillin, I haven't forgotten, but he's the only one who can help me stop Raditz." Goku said, attempting to calm his friend. Goku turned to Piccolo and nodded, fully letting his guard down. "I'll do it, please help me get my son back." Goku pleaded.

"Ha, I'm not helping to get your precious child." Piccolo chuckled "I'm simply removing this obstacle from my way in order to attain my goal of world domination." The rest of the people at Kame house were horrified, but they knew what had to be done, and so did Goku.

"Fine, but if you harm my son at all-"

"Yes yes, I know, I'll face your full wrath or whatever." Piccolo interrupted, leaving Goku's mouth agape. "Now let's get on with this, we don't have all day."

* * *

The ensuing battle was a grim one; the two fighters were outclassed in almost every way. No matter how many blows they dealt Raditz he was always up for more. It appeared as if they weren't harming him at all, and Piccolo's arm had even been blown off by one of Raditz's attacks. It looked as if they Goku and Piccolo would meet their demise, that is until Raditz was caught off guard by the small child Gohan. Piccolo had taken note of the power he felt emanating from the boy as he charged Raditz, dealing a massive blow to his armor and winding him enough for Goku to hold him in place. The two were locked, and it was too perfect of an opportunity to let go to waste, especially because of Goku's pleading to kill them both. Piccolo began to charge his attack, chuckling to himself.

'You always were a fool Goku.' Piccolo thought, readying his devastating attack. 'and now you're going to die!'

Piccolo had an awful grin across his face. This would be a feat to remember, he was about to vanquish the man who had taunted him all those years, the one who had utterly humiliated him and his father. He tried his best to contain all of his inner maniacal laughing as he shouted the name of his special technique; "Special beam cannon!"

Out of his fingertips came a yellow blast of energy that spiraled towards the pair, Piccolo could hear the screaming of Raditz, telling Goku that he was a fool to die for the pathetic planet. It was all garbage he spouted to save his sorry hide, and Piccolo didn't care. The beam cut through Raditz as if he were a piece of bread, as well as it did to Goku. As soon as the beam went through the two, Piccolo knew the deed was done. He had finally achieved what he and his father had failed at multiple times. He had killed Goku.

He looked over at the body of the two Saiyans, and then something caught his eye, it was the unconscious boy Gohan.

'That kid has some potential' Piccolo thought, he had been able to severely damage Raditz after both Piccolo and Goku had proven to be ineffective against him. 'After I deal with these two idiots I'll take him to the mountains to train. Maybe one day he'll be useful to me.'

He was about to re grow his arm when he saw something that surprised him, Raditz was still alive and breathing, however, Piccolo knew that he didn't have much time left.

"Hmm, still alive are we?" Piccolo asked the Saiyan, who grunted in pain. "Don't worry about your precious brother, those fool friends of his will try to bring him back. Not that I'm going to let that happen anyway." The green alien grinned and laughed quietly to himself, Raditz was confused however.

"How is that possible?" He managed to grunt out, blood dripped from his mouth. There was a momentary pause where Piccolo thought about killing him right there without indulging any information whatsoever to the Saiyan, however Piccolo decided that it wouldn't hurt to tell the dying man.

"Not that your idiotic brain could handle something like this, but on this planet there are things called Dragon Balls, and whoever gets all seven of them together gets any one wish granted. Goku's friends will try to wish him back, unfortunately for them they'll have me to deal with." Piccolo grinned once more; however he was surprised to hear that Raditz, despite his grievous injuries, was still able to belt out an evil, twisted laugh. Piccolo lost his smug grin and snapped at the Saiyan "What the hell are you laughing about?" Raditz smiled and told Piccolo;

"This device on my face is also a communicator, they heard everything, and now they'll want to make a wish." Raditz laughed once again, with Piccolo staring at him.

"What are you babbling about?" Piccolo shouted, obviously annoyed at this new development.

"Two more Saiyans will be here, and they are much stronger than me!" Raditz kept laughing, with Piccolo too deep in thought at the moment to care about what Raditz was doing. Suddenly, Goku spoke up;

"How long until they will be here?" He yelled over to his dying brother. Piccolo looked over at his nemesis with chagrin 'How the _hell_ did he survive that too?' Piccolo thought.

"One year! Then they will be here to wish me back!" Raditz was laughing even harder now. Piccolo decided that he had enough, mustering up all of his remaining strength; Piccolo rammed his fist into Raditz's body, killing him instantly. After he had killed the pathetic Saiyan, he turned his attention to Goku, barely hanging on to life. He thought about ending it right there, but then he saw Goku's friends coming closer in a Capsule Corporation vehicle.

'Great' Piccolo thought to himself 'I guess I should just tell them about the Saiyans, take the kid and get out of here.' Piccolo walked over to Goku's body as all of his friends rushed out to his side.

"Goku! Are you alright?" Krillin asked his best friend, holding onto one of his hands. Piccolo rolled his eyes at this 'How the hell could Goku be alright, can't you see the big hole in his stomach?' The green one joked to himself.

"He's not long for this world." Piccolo claimed, holding back a chuckle as he watched the humans reactions.

Bulma quickly ran over to the unconscious Gohan, who seemed to have broken out of Raditz's ship, and held the child tightly.

"Piccolo is right… take care of Gohan for me, ok guys?" Goku quietly said to his friends.

"No Goku! Don't leave us here with this maniac!" Krillin yelled as he cried into his friend's hand "We need you Goku!", Goku smiled and tried to calm Krillin and the others.

"It's ok, guys. P-piccolo changed," Goku proclaimed, looking straight at the green warrior who had helped to defeat Raditz "I can t-tell." Goku coughed once and looked back towards his weeping friends. "Everything will be alright…" And with that, his eyes went blank, and his body started to vanish slowly. All of Goku's companions wept for him, although the reason why escaped Piccolo, as they would just bring him back with the Dragon Balls anyway. While they were grieving, Piccolo had decided to break to them the news of the two other Saiyans heading to Earth.

"Before you get too depressed, Raditz left us somewhat of a parting gift." Piccolo explained to the others.

"What are you talking about Piccolo?" Bulma asked, holding young Gohan protectively in her arms.

"He alerted a few of his Saiyan friends that the Dragon Balls were here, and he claimed that they were going to be here in one year's time." Upon hearing this, the others shot back in horror. "So I suggest you train in the meantime." He started to walk towards Bulma, who defensively held Gohan as if he were her own child. "I'm going to need that kid."

"No! Leave him out of this! He's been through enough already!" Bulma screamed at Piccolo, who only grinned with a sort of sadistic pleasure.

"He showed exceptional promise today, and he can be of use to me against these Saiyans." Piccolo explained to the blue haired woman, surprising those who didn't feel as if Gohan could muster up enough power to be useful in a fight. Piccolo took one more step towards Bulma, raising his hand outward as if to reach to the boy. Bulma shot back and shook her head "If you don't give me that kid, I won't hesitate to kill you." The demon's eyes seemed to glow red as he spoke to the woman, causing her to lose a breath in sheer terror.

"Just do it Bulma, no one can stop him from taking Gohan, it's pointless to die for something that's going to happen no matter what you try to do." Roshi added in, Krillin nodded and for a moment. Bulma thought about it, and finally she handed him over to Piccolo, who grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt.

"Why would you want the kid anyway, he's not strong enough to become a fighter!" Krillin yelled, Piccolo only turned around and flew off, ignoring Krillin's question.

'Pathetic, I almost forgot how stupid these people were.' Thought the green one, as he sped off to a find suitable training ground. 'Now how am I going to do this? I need to train this kid to his very limits in order to make him stronger.' Piccolo thought of some training strategies that could work, but then another idea came to him. An evil grin that would drain the happiness out of everyone who saw it crept upon the face of the demon, who had come up with an idea so ingenious that it would have been idiotic not to attempt.

* * *

**What does Piccolo intend to do with Gohan now that he has seen the boy in action? Will the boy survive Piccolo's hellish training? Find out next time on**_**Piccolo's Choice**_**!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	2. Chapter 2: The Torture Begins

**Chapter 2: The Torture Begins**

Piccolo stood firm in front of the now conscious Gohan, who only stared up that the green man with tears in his eyes, asking for daddy. He only stared back, not saying a word for the longest time. He had a sort of steely gaze in his eyes, as if to say to the young child that he would take no more of his incessant crying. Gohan only cried harder however, which made Piccolo's temper rise until he could take no more, finally he had enough.

"Shut up you little brat!" Piccolo twisted his arm behind his back and promptly slammed the back of his hand across the kids face, sending him flying. After the damage had been done, Gohan only sat on the ground, crying and not moving, which somehow annoyed Piccolo even more."Be glad I only used half of my strength on you." He yelled over to Gohan. 'Stupid kid' He thought as he walked over to the boy.

Gohan started to stand up, then he faced Piccolo with an even more depressed expression than before, and the green one was surprised to see that the slap to the face that he had given Gohan had made a large red imprint on the boy. 'Serves him right' Piccolo thought to himself, smugly grinning. The sniveling little boy's expression quickly changed from a poor defenseless kid into a machine of rage.

"I hate you! You big meanie!" Gohan swiftly zoomed towards Piccolo, however the boys speed did not match the aliens, and as soon as Gohan had reached him, Piccolo dodged the boy and slammed his elbow down on the his back. Gohan lied still for a moment, crying and sniveling again.

"My name is Piccolo, and if you ever try to do that again I will kill you." Piccolo told the boy, who started to get back up.

"I w-want my d-d-d-daddy…" He cried softly. Piccolo restrained himself from harming the boy, only so he could insult Goku.

"Your father's dead, he was a pathetic excuse for a warrior." Piccolo explained to him. "You need to forget him; I'm the only one who can help you now." The boy sat still, only for a moment, but when he fully grasped what Piccolo was saying, he began only to cry harder.

"My daddy was a great man! Don't say mean stuff about him ever again!" Gohan yelled. Piccolo smirked with a sick pleasure.

"He left you behind Gohan; he didn't want to keep looking after you." Piccolo laughed out loud and continued. "That's why he gave up when we were fighting, so that he didn't have to look after his sorry excuse for a son!"Piccolo smiled with an evil grin, leaving Gohan to sob on the ground. Feeling almost sorry however, he told Gohan something that the boy needed to hear, for both his sake and for the sake of Piccolo's plan. "I'm different kid." He told the poor boy. "I saw potential in you that your father never did, where he gave up in you, I saw something great!" Piccolo's grin faded as he saw the boy get up and look at him with solemn eyes. "I'm going to train you; you will be the greatest warrior on this planet." Gohan was almost about to cry at the thought of his father abandoning him, but he wasn't so naive.

"You're lying! My daddy would never leave me!" Gohan screamed, only half believing his own words.

"Then tell me something Gohan, where the hell is he now! Why hasn't he saved you yet!?" Piccolo shouted back, leaving the boy in utter silence. Gohan stared at the ground for a good while, with Piccolo grinning for his small victory.

"B-but… you said he was dead…" Gohan sniveled, continuing to stare at the ground with tears falling from his face. Piccolo grunted and turned his back on the boy.

"He _is _dead, he told me to take you before he died. He told me that I should be burdened with you rather than him, he was disappointed in you Gohan!" Piccolo callously retorted, turning to face the boy once more "He gave up on you, and he's the reason why you're here right now. If he wanted to live, he could have. Instead, he chose to die like an idiot, just so that he wouldn't have to face his weakling son!" The demon laughed in Gohan's face, who cried even harder at these words, shaking his head in disproval. "Think about it Gohan, did he ever once try to train you!? I don't see the weak child your father saw." Piccolo reassured Gohan, who looked up at the green man, tears pouring down his face. "No, when I look at you, I see a strong warrior! You could even defeat Goku if you trained hard enough!"

The boy sat in silence for the longest time, Piccolo allowed this only because he wished to gain Gohan's trust, if only for a small while. The demon turned and walked away from the boy briefly, pacing back and forth as if waiting for a response. All Gohan could think about now was his time with his father, and how much fun they had. How could he have abandoned him like that? Gohan didn't know, and it bothered him to great lengths. Perhaps he didn't believe everything Piccolo was telling him, but one thing remained. Goku was dead, and he hadn't once told Gohan about fighting, training or anything like that at all. This new man, Piccolo, was trying to reassure the boy of his true power, and the idea was finally sinking in. After a few minutes, Gohan gave up.

"Ok, I'll train with you." The boy said in a small, saddened voice, not even looking up at the one who insulted his father so horribly. Piccolo savored this by chuckling to himself, softly so that Gohan wouldn't hear.

'That's right kid, by the end of this, you're going to despise your father' Piccolo thought to himself.

"Good, now if I hear you crying for your daddy again, you will be punished, severely." This threat made Gohan gulp, and Piccolo turned his back to the boy. "I'll be back here in three months. If you're still alive by then, we will start the real training." And with those words, Piccolo flew off, leaving behind the child to fend for himself for 90 days.

"Wait! Mr. Piccolo! I'm scared!" Gohan yelled at the green one, who seemed to ignore Gohan's words. However, Piccolo heard everything, and grinned.

Feeling totally hopeless, Gohan began to bawl. 'I can't do this, I'm gonna die!' Gohan thought, crying even harder at this revelation. He sat in the same place for a good hour, not wanting to move, not wanting to think, just crying. To him life was over, after all, he was miles away from his mother and his father had abandoned him. After a long while, he regained his composure, and decided that the best thing to do now would be to find something to eat. Even if he was sad and wanted to die, he wasn't just going to give up so easily.

Walking for a while, something caught the youngster's eye. 'Well… from what my books tell me, I think these berries are ok to eat.' Gohan thought, examining the bush where he had made a brief stop. 'After this I should get some water.' Even at his young age, he seemed to know the basics of life. After a while he found something capable of holding the berries that he had picked, along with a cave to stay in when night would fall. Because he had a few hours of daylight left, he decided to explore all around him for a better source of food, as well as water.

"There!" He yelled out to no one in particular. He had found a large lake that a few animals were drinking out of. He quickly sped off and started to drink as if he hadn't had a sip of water in days, which wasn't the case as he had a full meal not ten hours ago. After he had enough, he began to fill up a makeshift pouch that he fashioned out of some large leafs he had collected, and was about to head back to his cave when he heard something that made him jump.

The roar of a hungry dinosaur shook the earth and made every animal in the vicinity disperse, however all Gohan could do was stand in fear of this large beast. It was a tyrannosaurus, who ran out of the forest, crushing trees wherever he stepped, and quickly shifted its gaze towards Gohan. The dinosaur licked his chops and roared into the air, seeming to smile at the young boy.

Gohan stared in terror at the monster, but somehow was able to squeal out; "H-hey there Mr. d-dinosaur sir." The boy gulped as the T-Rex walked closer to the terrified boy. "P-please don't eat m-me!" Gohan screamed as his legs started to work again, and franticly he started to run for his life. When everything was at stake, Gohan was able to jolt at speeds far faster than he normally could have, but even with this increase in speed, the dino was hot on his trail, attempting to bite the boy when he got close enough. This continued for a while until Gohan ran into his cave, which was too small for the dinosaur to enter, for the most part at least. The T-Rex had comically gotten his head stuck in the mouth of the cave, and after realizing that it wasn't able to get him, Gohan began to stick his tongue out at the dinosaur.

"Haha, you can't get me!" Gohan yelled, jumping up and down. After a while of trying to get the kid, and failing miserably, the tyrannosaurus pulled its head out of the cave and walked away, presumably to look for other food. Even though the sun was still up, Gohan had decided that he had enough for the day, and started to prepare for sleep. He took off his garb and wore only his undershirt and pants, lied down on the ground, and attempted to fall asleep. However he found this task to be one of the hardest things he had done all day, as his mind kept shifting to his father, who he now knew to be dead. Did he really leave him behind because he was weak? Young Gohan clenched his teeth when he heard Piccolo's voice in his head; 'Why hasn't he saved you yet!' It rang in his mind over and over until he started to cry.

"Why… WHY!" He yelled as he clenched his teeth even harder in anger and fear. "You should be here for me now, why did you leave me!" The kid yelled, shaking the cave, and also wearing him out immensely. Outside of the cave, Piccolo heard his cry, and smiled in sadistic pleasure.

'Keep eating it up Gohan, this is just the beginning.' He took off once again, leaving Gohan to quietly cry himself to sleep. During the entire night, Gohan had not cried his father's name any more. Piccolo's warning of severe beating had nothing to do with it.

* * *

**How will Gohan fare now that Piccolo has left him to fend for himself? Will the boy be able to endure and grow stronger because of his abandonment? And will Piccolo be able to teach Gohan how to handle his rage and aggression? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	3. Chapter 3: Unnatural Power

**Chapter 3: Unnatural Power**

The morning sun had risen, and Gohan arose with it. Usually he had his mother to thank for waking him up, but now it was the sun's doing, and Gohan somehow knew the day would be rough. He rubbed his eyes and began to sit up, all while wondering where his mother was. A few moments after his mind started to work, he soon remembered the day that preceded this one, and he found that his mother would be a few hundred miles away at least. With the events of yesterday taking their toll on him, he tried to bury them so deep in his head that he would forget. This was only wishful thinking however, as nothing would ever allow him to forget the horrible things that Piccolo had told him the day before. Gohan's refusal to cry was more astounding than ever, and not a tear fell out of his eye that entire morning. Even with all of the hurt he had endured, the boy's will was strong this day, and he had resolved to start training as soon as possible, but first he would need something to eat.

Gohan's stomach rumbled with a fierceness only a Saiyans could, and upon hearing it he held his stomach tightly, trying to fight off the massive growls and roars that it would make.

"Shut up stomach! I'll get you some food now just stop growling!" The boy waited a few minutes for the noises to subside and then swiftly began to work at finding more food and water to drink from. The lake that he had found the other day was once again abundant with animal life, and Gohan had taken from it all he needed once again. Since he had lost the pouch that he had made the other day running for his life, he had made another one, which he filled with water that he intended to take back to the cave. So far, nothing had attempted to harm him, and the T-Rex from the other day proved to not be a repeat offender, for which Gohan thanked his lucky stars.

He took a moment to notice all of the animals that he had previously not been able to admire, and quickly decided to get back to the safety of the cave. 'I should really start to train; it's too bad I don't know how…' Gohan's mind wandered into thinking of ways to train himself so that Piccolo wouldn't be angry with him, after all, Gohan thought that since his father had left him, the only person who he could lean on was his mother and Piccolo. However, Gohan knew that Piccolo wouldn't let Gohan see his mother unless he proved to be useful, so all he had now was a drive to become stronger and a strong desire to know if what Piccolo had said about his father was true.

"Dad…" Gohan stopped for a moment and started to tear up, but made a quick recovery. His expression changed into a determined look, he decided that now wasn't the time to cry, he had training to do and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way now.

'Maybe if I just start with the basics, like practicing punches and kicks, stuff like that' Gohan thought deeply about what kind of training he would be doing. Exiting the mouth of the cave he bumped into a familiar face, and the color from Gohan's face was drained as he looked up at the monstrous beast from the previous day, who was waiting patiently for the boy at the foot of the cave. Gohan's throat gave a soft squealing noise as the T-Rex turned to see his long awaited "friend" to return, and made an awful grin, showing off his big sharp teeth.

Somehow today had been different than the last. With the beast's awful grin striking fear into Gohan's heart, the boy felt his legs being paralyzed, as he had no one to count on to save him but himself. Gohan dropped his food and water to the floor, legs still paralyzed as he watched in horror as the monster quickly sprung his head down onto the child and snapped his jaws shut on the child.

Piccolo, who had been watching Gohan from afar, looked in dismay at the death of a child which he expected to be one of the greatest warriors this earth could offer. 'The idiot, why didn't he run?' Piccolo scowled and cursed the boy, thinking that if he couldn't even survive on his own for a few days then he didn't even deserve to live. 'If something as weak as that creature could defeat him, then my training would have done him in anyway.' Piccolo began to lift into the air, but something strange had caught his eye.

"Why the hell isn't that dinosaur moving?" He asked himself aloud, looking closely he then noticed that the beast hadn't fully snapped its jaws down, and that Gohan was holding it back by its teeth. Gohan had cleverly grabbed onto the dinosaurs teeth on both sides of its mouth and now Gohan began to push the jaws away from him. "What? H-how is that even possible?" Piccolo shouted as he began to see Gohan's face. It was one of sheer rage, and all Piccolo could guess was that the boy had some sort of inner defense mechanism when he was in harm's way. The green man watched in awe as the small child struggled to keep the jaws of the beast from snapping down on him, something that surly would kill him. However, instead of helping the child, Piccolo decided to take it easy and see how strong this boy could really be. 'This should be interesting' Piccolo thought with a sadistic smile.

Gohan's power had gone up tremendously from his rage taking over, and his mind had completely gone, except for one part that told him to live. He shelled out all of the energy that his body could spare at the moment, and had the beast at bay for what seemed to be a good 5 minutes, a feat which someone his age should never have been able to accomplish.

"Wow, this kid is something else, maybe he _can_ become a powerful warrior." Piccolo said to himself as he continued to watch the ensuing struggle. Even though it seemed that Gohan was fighting a losing battle, the kid kept his power up and never let it down, and although he couldn't control his mind, a part of it had somehow drifted to his father. His smiling face only made Gohan angrier somehow 'why aren't you helping me?!' he asked his father in his mind 'why didn't you train me?'

"Why aren't you here?" Gohan's pouted, trying to retain his power while fending off the beast.

'Why did you have to die daddy?' the boys mind raced, trying to reason with himself why his father would throw his life away.

'He left you behind, Gohan.' Piccolo's voice from yesterday entered Gohan's mind, only serving to make the boy even angrier 'He was disappointed in you Gohan.'

"Why aren't you here?" the boy growled. He was beginning to lose his grip on the dinosaur.

'Why hasn't he saved you?' Piccolo asked Gohan in his mind, causing something to snap inside of the boy.

"I _don't_ need you!" Gohan shouted, shaking the very earth around him. "You're gonna pay! I'm gonna kill you!" His power in that moment rose to an enormous level, causing Piccolo to double back in surprise and fear.

"What the HELL!" Piccolo yelled in terror, wind flying past his face from the energy output of the little half Saiyan, who had no longer been struggling with the beast, and was in total control.

"DIE!" The boy shouted as he pushed back the jaws of the now terrified T-Rex with so much force that it ripped its mouth in two, killing it instantly. Soon after he had accomplished this, the boy fell over, and his power drastically decreased as he passed out. Piccolo stared at Gohan, looking dumbfounded at what he had just witnessed. Mouth wide open, Piccolo had no idea what just went on, and couldn't even think straight for a while. Piccolo was able to regain his cool after some time, but still just stared at the boy, who was now covered in the blood of the dinosaur he had killed.

"That was… incredible…" Piccolo said aloud, not knowing what else that he could say. Piccolo touched down onto the ground and kept on staring inquisitively at Gohan. 'Where does he get all of that energy from?' Piccolo asked himself, knowing full well that someone like Gohan should never have reached a power like that at his age. 'I need to keep him around; I could turn him into a valuable asset.' Usually a thought like this would make Piccolo smirk, but he was not in the mood this time. A power like that was no laughing matter at all. 'Or perhaps only a monster.' He didn't take this decision lightly, as bending one's mind could become dangerous, especially with someone with as high of a potential as Gohan. After a moment of deep thought, Piccolo decided it was time to leave.

"Good job kid, remember that I'm the only one who can help you become stronger." Gohan half heard Piccolo's words, but then he slipped into a deep sleep that was haunted with memories of his father.

* * *

"Hey guy's, this is Gohan, my son." Goku told everyone on Roshi's island. They all gasped at the revelation of Goku having a child at all.

"Is he strong?" Krillin asked.

"Yeah, is he strong Goku?" Yamcha asked as well, which was followed by a chorus of people asking if Gohan was a good fighter, or if he was strong. Goku turned to his son with eyes aflame.

"No, he's good for nothing." Goku slammed his knee into Gohan's face, sending him flying through the sky and back into his body on the desert wasteland.

* * *

"No dad… no…" Gohan cried softly as he woke up, drenched in blood. He got up quickly and started to try and wipe some of it off of his only outfit. "W-what h-happened?" He asked, with no one to answer. "D-did I do this?" Gohan looked at the T-Rex's eyes, which were now forever open, with a scared expression that made Gohan wonder what it was so afraid of. Suddenly, he felt sorry for it, dying alone and afraid. He patted its head and shed a tear for it before wiping it off.

"I gotta get going… It looks like lunch time almost…" Gohan then walked off in search of more food.

Meanwhile, Piccolo sat in solitude, meditating and trying to clear his mind, a task which he found rather taxing at the moment. He twitched every time he thought of Gohan's power. 'How could he be so powerful? Is that something that all Saiyans have? Some kind of deeper inner power they can only release if their life is in danger? I thought I would have seen his max before, but today he seemed to turn into something else.' All this thinking got in the way of Piccolo's meditation, and soon he gave up on the act so he could think more clearly. 'It just doesn't make any sense.' He thought, clenching his teeth in anger. 'Damn it, this kid is supposed to be nothing to me, why does his power scare me so much!' Piccolo's rage was building and he knew that he had to suppress it. 'Calm down, this is a good thing, with my help, Gohan will be able to take down anything and everything that comes our way.' Piccolo half smiled in this revelation. Suddenly something donned on him, Gohan had been thinking about his father before he powered up, screaming out and asking why he wasn't there to help him. 'That's it! Now he's beginning to hate his own father! This is perfect.' Piccolo laughed and continued to do so for a few seconds, and after that, it degraded into another evil smirk.

"It's only the second day Gohan, keep this up and you'll fall right into my hands." Piccolo quietly said to himself in total assuredness. Never had he been so thrilled in his life.

* * *

**How will Gohan's training go now that Piccolo knows of his inner power? Will Piccolo be able to turn the boy against his own father? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	4. Chapter 4: Hopes For Tomorrow

**Chapter 4: Hopes For Tomorrow**

Piccolo was training in the early morning as he usually did, with the sun barely up in the sky. For the past two months or so he had resolved to train as hard and as long as he possibly could in order to reach a level he thought was enough to be able to subdue Gohan's hidden power, however he hadn't found any evidence that he truly was getting anywhere near that kind of strength yet. His training usually consisted of meditation for most of the night, and then he would physically train himself during most of the daylight hours, with the exception of checking on Gohan to make sure the brat was still alive. Piccolo found that the boy had also made great progress in his power, and had pushed himself to a limit that the boy would never have tried for if Piccolo hadn't implanted the idea of Goku being an uncaring selfish bastard in him. Gohan now had something to live for, something to get stronger for, and something to keep his fears at bay, and it all was about showing his father what he was made of. 'Heh, I really out did myself this time' Piccolo congratulated himself while fighting a split copy he had made of his body for training purposes.

The two clashed in the sky, their fist slamming into each others, creating a small shockwave that shook the ground below briefly. After the stalemate had occurred, the original Piccolo started to throw punches at his copied self, who dodged and blocked as many blows as he could until the original blasted the copy in the face with a right hook. The copied Piccolo flew back but regained his position and blasted the original Piccolo with as much Ki as he could possibly throw out. The original flew back and forth, trying to dodge, but one got him finally and sent him flying up into the air. Quickly taking advantage of this opportunity, the copy zoomed in and attempted to slam his elbow into the originals stomach, but the original had other plans. As the copy attacked, the original seemed to vanish in a split second, repapering behind his twin and slamming his two clamped fists down on him, sending the copy down crashing to the ground.

After that, Piccolo decided that he should take a break from fight to see if Gohan was ready to be trained by Piccolo himself. He nodded to his counterpart who immediately nodded back, and the two fused together back into one. Even though he had thought that the boy should be ready by now, he still had some thoughts in the back of his head. 'Maybe I should give the kid more time, my training techniques could kill him if he's not prepared.' However, Piccolo shrugged this off and smiled with a single phrase; "No pain no gain." The green one chuckled softly and blasted off in search of the kid.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gohan was in the middle of his daily training. For the past two months, he was putting everything on the line to become stronger. For what? He had only a few ideas, but for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about training. Gohan had changed very little since he started training, the only thing that was different was that he now had something driving him forward, something to keep him from being afraid. He was going to show his father what he was made of when he returned to Earth and finally get an explanation out of him. "I've got to keep going, I have to show Mr. Piccolo that I can be strong like him." Gohan told himself as he blasted a few ki at a nearby rock, turning it into rubble. 'If I can make him proud, maybe he can be my new daddy.' Gohan smiled and laughed a bit at the thought of Piccolo, Gohan and Chi-Chi all sitting at the dinner table, sharing a nice warm meal. The thought of his mother had upset him a bit, however, as he wished to see her and tell her that he was ok on his own, and that he didn't need Goku anymore.

Another unique trait that Gohan had picked up was that he no longer referred to Goku as his father, but now called him by his first name. He had resolved to do this one night after a session of deep thinking where he had figured out that he no longer thought of Goku mainly as his father, but as an enemy or a rival that Gohan would one day defeat. "I'm gonna show you Goku, I'm gonna show you that I can be a great warrior!" Gohan smiled brightly and started to practice his kicks and punches. 'Once I make Piccolo proud we can go and live together and I'll have a daddy again!' At the sheer thought of this, Gohan felt happiness in which he hadn't felt for months, since his father had "abandoned him." He continued his training until he saw something coming in the sky, it was green and wearing a turban, Gohan shouted up to the green man with much enthusiasm; "Hey Piccolo! I'm down here! I'm ready to start the training now!" Piccolo saw the boy on the ground shouting his name, and promptly landed near him.

"Come on kid, it's time I started to teach you how to become a real warrior." Piccolo told the boy, who prevented himself from smiling in order to look more serious like his mentor. Gohan nodded and walked over to Piccolo, who was currently thinking about the boy's future training as he approached the green man. 'Yeah kid, that's right, the time is here, and when I'm through with you you're going to wish you had never been born.' Gohan had reached the man who stared down at the boy with a serious look on his face, one which Gohan could not shake, and he knew that now was the time when things would start to get serious.

"I'm ready Piccolo." Gohan said, still looking at Piccolo's cold stare. The green one nodded and picked him up to take him to his usual training spot. On the way there, Gohan couldn't help but ask something that was on his mind.

"Um… Piccolo?" Gohan quietly tried to get his attention, Piccolo gave a swift glance over to Gohan that meant he was listening. "Can I see my mom sometime?" As soon as Gohan finished his sentence, Piccolo stopped mid flight and looked at the child with a deathly gaze. Gohan kept looking up at Piccolo, hoping to get a response that sounded like; 'sure Gohan, and then we can all eat dinner together and be a family.' But what came out was;

"You can see your mom when you've managed to beat me in a fight." Piccolo stared at the boy for a moment, but then started to blast off once more. Gohan wasn't exactly happy with the answer he had gotten, but he was glad that he had a chance, even if it was a small one. The rest of the way there was mostly quiet, except when Piccolo told Gohan that he would teach him to fly and use ki attacks, to which Gohan replied;

"But I already know how to use those ki things." This surprised Piccolo, as he had never seen Gohan do this before.

"When was that kid?" He asked, thinking that maybe he just used it when he wasn't around.

"Well I started using them a month ago when I remembered something that Goku was telling me when I was a baby." Gohan explained further. "He was talking about ki with me, and how it worked. I was only two so I didn't know what they were talking about, but I…" Piccolo cut him off in annoyance.

"Kid, if I want to hear your life story I'll ask. For now I don't really care." Gohan looked at the ground for a while, not knowing what to think about Piccolo for the moment, but eventually he began to make excuses as to why Piccolo was being so mean. 'Maybe he's lonely?' Gohan thought to himself. 'I should let him have his space.' They flew the rest of the way in silence, until finally Piccolo spotted his encampment not too far away.

"There it is kid; I won't start training you until tomorrow, which gives you one day to get prepared. Got it?" Gohan nodded as the two touched down on land. Piccolo released the kid who walked over to a nearby rock and sat down. 'What the hell is he doing?' Piccolo thought, looking at Gohan. 'I give him a day to prepare for my training and he uses it to slack off?' Piccolo decided to leave the child be and head out to train himself even more.

"Piccolo, I'm only resting for a little bit, I'll be up soon to prepare." Gohan yelled over to his master, who stopped mid stride.

"I would cherish every second that you're not training with me kid, because every moment of it will be a living hell." With that, Piccolo walked off, leaving Gohan in an intense amount of fear. 'I can't quit now… I've come too far!' Thought Gohan, as he got up and started to find something to eat.

Piccolo stood still in the same spot for a while, thinking about the return of Goku. Was it truly necessary at all? Surly in the time that they had to train, Gohan and Piccolo could take on just about anything that came their way. 'How strong are these two really? Can they truly be so much of a challenge that we have to bring Goku back?' Piccolo didn't think so, but something else was nagging on his mind.

His pupil, Gohan, needed his father to come back. It was one thing that the child truly looked forward to, being able to see Goku, and defeating him in battle. 'Ha, the kid won't even finish him off when the time comes.' Piccolo kept his cool and calculated expression on his face as he thought on. 'When when that time comes, I'll just have to kill Goku myself…' Piccolo smiled to himself. 'Again' He laughed, and decided that to bring Goku back was not only a smart idea, but Piccolo saw it as another opportunity to strengthen the bond of evil within himself, which had almost slipped away until he had experienced the rush of killing both Goku and Raditz at the same time.

'It's a good thing that the Saiyan showed up or I might have become one of those idiots.' Piccolo cringed at the thought of becoming one of those people that constantly had hung around Goku. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, they were all fools that deserved to die, and Piccolo intended to give them what they deserved when the time came. 'Morons, the only person you should look out for is yourself.' Piccolo sat in silence for many hours, and thought about the coming months ahead.

* * *

**Will Piccolo's training push Gohan too far? And what will Gohan do if he ever sees his father again? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	5. Chapter 5: Let It Begin

**Chapter 5: Let It Begin**

There was dead silence in the air as Piccolo stood over the sleeping Gohan, waiting until the right time to wake him from his slumber. Piccolo wanted so badly to just shout at him now, but he knew that there were a few things that humans needed, and one of those things was sleep. 'It's pointless and time consuming.' Piccolo thought, looking over to see if the sun had started to rise yet. Anticipation was what made him so anxious today; he wanted to see what Gohan was made of, as well as what he himself was made of. The boy had come a long way since Piccolo had slain his father, and even without training his power seemed to have risen greatly. Even without Gohan's power being augmented by rage, he would be about twice as strong as Piccolo was when he fought Raditz, which was incredibly impressive to Piccolo, considering that he had no prior training with anyone. 'And with my help, I'm sure to make him into a powerful beast.' Piccolo closed his eyes and smiled at this, but quickly opened them when he had realized that the sun was creeping over the horizon.

The green demon knew that the time was ready, and now Gohan would face a horrible, hellish couple of months, and even Piccolo doubted that Gohan would make it.

"Gohan! Wake up!" Piccolo yelled at the child, who merely rolled a little to the left at Piccolos words. "Damn it you stupid kid." Piccolo cursed under his breath. "I said wake up!" He yelled even louder, Gohan didn't even flinch. 'That's it; this is your fault kid, not mine.' Thought the green man as he lifted his leg behind his back. "Wake-" Piccolo shouted as his leg started to swing down; "UP!" his leg made contact with the child, sending him plummeting through the sky and smashing into a nearby rock.

"Ugh…" A now conscious Gohan uttered as he rolled down the mountain, battered and bruised. Piccolo flew over to him and was surprised to find that Gohan had already stood up on his own two feet. "I was having a good dream Piccolo…" Gohan said as he rubbed his eyes, seemingly unaware of the immense pain that he should have endured. Piccolo stood back away from the child, mouth wide open in astonishment of something like this. "Is it time to train already?" Gohan yawned as he started over towards Piccolo.

After a few moments, Piccolo put on his signature steely cold face and responded. "Yes, and let me tell you kid, you're not going to like it." Gohan stopped after he was close enough and looked up at the man with a determined look across his face.

"I can do it Piccolo; I can take whatever you can throw at…" A leg made contact with Gohan's abdomen, a blow so hard that it made him fly right back into the mountain. and even made the boy produce a few tears. The boy fell over and held the area that had been assaulted, his stomach churned in immense pain, with an intensity that he had never felt before. Piccolo smiled and showed off his pointed teeth in an attempt to further intimidate his student.

"Think before you speak boy, you make it sound as if I'm weak." The green one said as he made his way over to the boy. Gohan planted his palms onto the ground and slowly started to make his way up. "Get up kid; you don't want to be a pathetic weakling like your father do you?" Gohan shook his head in disproval, trying his hardest to make his way back up in order to impress his mentor.

"I'm s-sorry P-Piccolo." Gohan said as he still tried to make his way up. "I know y-you're s-strong…" He uttered, getting on one knee. "I just w-wanted you to know th-that you shouldn't g-go easy on me." Gohan finished as he stood up. Honestly his legs felt as if they were going to collapse, but still Gohan stood firm, trying his hardest to make impress the one man he cared about in this world. Piccolo was once again surprised at the child's pure determination, but still was determined to break him, and break him was what Piccolo intended to do.

"Good, now that you're up, I can teach a few rules." Gohan looked up at Piccolo, who was standing only a few feet away from the boy.

"What is that Piccolo?" Piccolo looked at the kid as his face instantly changed into one of sheer disproval.

"Rule number one" Piccolo said as he stepped towards Gohan, fist back behind his head, "you have to earn the right to talk!" He yelled as he made contact with the terrified boy's cheek, making his face slam into the dirt. Gohan laid in that spot for a moment, trying to regain his composure. It took him a while, but he finally was able to stand once again. Piccolo grinned despite being unimpressed with his own power. 'Either this kid is tough as nails or I'm slipping.' Piccolo thought, knowing that he was putting an immense amount of power into these hits in order to ensure that they physically hurt the boy.

"Rule number two, never let your guard down." This rule made Gohan flinch, but Piccolo merely continued pacing. The boy sighed in relief as Piccolo continued.

"Rule number three, always give it your all, no matter what." Piccolos facial expression had changed into a serious one, and then spoke once again. "Do you have any questions kid?"

"Well, I…" Piccolo kneed the kid in the stomach, which made the child's eyes bulge, as well as making him fall to his knees. Tears fell down his face as Piccolo shook his head in disappointment.

"Rule number four, no questions asked." Piccolo said, falling back "Ever." Gohan was trying to suppress the immense pain he was feeling, and finally managed to get back up again, astonishing himself as well as his teacher. 'He's damned resilient, I'll give him that much.' Piccolo thought, continuing with the rules.

"And finally, rule number five." Gohan looked back up at Piccolo, who in turn looked back down at the kid. "Trust no one but me." At that moment, all Gohan wanted to do was embrace the green man and tell him how much he wanted for them to be a family, how much that he wanted to forget about everything and just go away, but Gohan knew that Piccolo wasn't like that, and the boy would have to earn the respect of Piccolo. Gohan stood and stared at him, determination once again in his eyes.

Piccolo stood still, staring into the Gohan's eyes, seemingly staring into the boy's soul. Even though Piccolo believed himself to be the epitome of evil, for some reason, for just a moment, he felt as if this boy was more to him that just a pawn. 'Damn this feeling!' Piccolo said, looking away from Gohan. 'This kid is nothing! I'm using him to further my own ends and that is all!' Piccolo clenched his teeth and calmed down, bringing on his calm demeanor again. Despite being against the rules that Piccolo had just set for him, Gohan spoke up;

"Are you ok Piccolo?" The green one looked over at the child with anger and disgust, disgust at his own weakness for such a human.

"I said no talking!" Piccolo yelled as he punched Gohan in the face, sending him flying once again. "Maybe you should listen every once in a while brat." Gohan's face became numb, and he lay on the ground, trying to rationalize why Piccolo was so cruel. "You had better get up Gohan, we have a lot of training to do, and I can't very well do it if you're going to be on the ground the whole time." Piccolo taunted Gohan, who struggled to his feet. "Now we're going to start the fun part." He explained to the boy, crossing his arms. Gohan wondered what Piccolo was talking about, as it didn't seem that the green one was getting ready to fight at all. The child was about to ask what they were going to do, but stopped himself at the last second, not wanting another brutalizing by Piccolo. "If you can land a solid punch on me, I'll let you rest for one hour, but after that it's back to training." Gohan lit up at that thought, he hadn't even begun his real training and already his body was bruised and he felt exhausted.

'I need a rest, to get prepared.' Gohan thought, even seeming to gasp it out in his mind.

The child nodded, rested for a few moments, and then ran as fast as he could towards Piccolo. 'Nice try kid, but you're going to have to do better than that' Piccolo dodged the punch Gohan threw at him, as well as the many others that the boy barraged at the green man. Gohan stopped for a moment to catch his breath and then he went on a full on assault, punching and kicking as fast as he could. Gohan's power and speed put any normal man on the planet to shame, but he was still no match for the older, more powerful fighter, who seemed to be dodging all of Gohan's attacks with little effort.

"C'mon kid, don't you want that rest?" Piccolo smiled as he taunted the boy, who punched and kicked even faster now, pushing the very limits of his speed. Gohans constant barrage of punches were wearing him down, and Piccolo had gotten tired of the boys slow attacking speed, so Piccolo quickly kneed the boy in the stomach, making Gohan fall to his knees once more.

"Ung…" Gohan grunted as Piccolo looked down at him, disappointed.

"I can't believe I took on such a weak kid as my pupil." Piccolo said aloud, turning his back on the boy. Gohan seized this opportunity and got up as fast he could to deliver a punch. The boy rushed as fast as he could, and finally made contact with Piccolos venerable back. Piccolo yelled in surprise and pain as he fell over to his knees. "That..." Piccolo started to get up off of the ground. "Hurt…" He said with a hint of astonishment in his voice. Piccolo was now on his two feet, not even facing Gohan, who just stood in amazement that he had actually attacked the one person he cared about.

"I'm sorry Piccolo…" Gohan whispered. Despite being against his list of rules, Piccolo decided to let this one slide.

"Go get some rest, if you're lucky I won't kill you when you get back." Piccolo explained, standing still. Gohan gulped and ran off to find a suitable place to rest. 'Good job kid, not many people could say that they've hurt me before.' Piccolo stood in silence 'But now that you're warmed up, I think it's time I got serious.' Piccolos infamous grin spread across his face as he waited for one hour to unleash hell on Goku's son.

* * *

**Now that his training has finally started, will Gohan be able to endure Piccolo's harsh methods? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	6. Chapter 6: Corruption of the Soul

**Chapter 6: Corruption of the Soul**

Gohan sat, watching the sunrise as he usually did since the past few months, taking in the beauty. But other than just watching it, he pondered everything that had happened to him since Goku died. After six months had passed, there was a lot to think about, and Gohan was trying his hardest to make sense of it all. 'Why does Piccolo expect so much of me?' was a thought that frequently came into his mind 'I know I've improved and all, but he still treats me as if I've accomplished nothing…' Gohan frowned and looked at the ground, a thing that he would often find himself doing recently. 'Piccolo has put me through so much! I don't think I'll ever be the same again…' Gohan started to cry for a moment, but regained his composure as he knew that if Piccolo saw him cry, his full wrath would be incurred upon the poor boy.

As Gohan watched the sun, Piccolo stood away from him on a mountain top, staring down at the boy with a face that showed neither anger nor happiness, nor did it show any other sign of any emotion, as Piccolo was deep into thinking at the moment. A great many things had happened in the last six months, including when Gohan turned into that massive beast. Suddenly, Piccolo's mind cleared itself to play out what had happened that night.

Only a few weeks into Gohan's training with Piccolo had passed, and as it was nighttime, Gohan was resting and trying to recover from the massive beating the day before. Piccolo sat and meditated, clearing his mind and trying to strengthen himself. All was quiet, and nothing seemed wrong, but that was before the beast had reared its ugly head. The boy had been hit by a falling rock, or some sort of coincidental thing, and had apparently seen the full moons glow, which transformed him into some kind of ape beast. As soon as Piccolo saw the beast, he was stricken with terror at the level of power it had, as it was at least 10 times stronger than Piccolo. Thinking fast, he quickly blasted over to where the boy had been stationed, to see if the ape had killed him. To Piccolo's surprise, there was no trace of Gohan anywhere.

'Damn kid!' Piccolo had thought in his mind 'he's a coward!' Piccolo hid behind a rock to find a way to kill the beast, at first he thought of a beam cannon, but dismissed that as it would take Piccolo too long to charge it. Then he thought of guerrilla tactics, jumping out and attacking it and quickly rushing away to avoid detection, which seemed at the time to be the most logical way to kill the beast. Piccolo took a peek from behind the rock to see that the ape was in a rampage, blasting a huge ki beam from his mouth and destroying mountains, however the monster was facing the other way, which meant that his tail was wide open for an assault.

'I have you now you bastard!' He yelled in his head as he bolted out. Piccolo moved so quickly that the ape had no time to react, and the alien slashed off his tail with a swift swipe. Piccolo smirked as he quickly ran for cover, waiting to strike next. 'Now if I keep doing this, he should fall fairly easily' Piccolo reassured himself, checking the ape from his rock. What he saw shocked him however, as the ape was devolving quickly, back to what seemed to be Gohan.}

Piccolo never told Gohan what happened that night, and when he asked what had happened to his tail, Piccolo coolly responded that he had cut it off because it was a hindrance. Gohan readily believed it, and never questioned about it again. 'These damn Saiyans have some amazing power…' Piccolo thought, looking at Gohan, who after every beating Piccolo gave him, seemed only to get tremendously stronger and stronger. He was so strong now in fact that he was nearly two and a half times stronger than Raditz, while Piccolo himself was about three times stronger. The closeness in the gap actually scared Piccolo to some extent, as his control over the boy could slip if Gohan became stronger than Piccolo himself.

'That isn't going to happen' Piccolo tried to tell himself, but deeper into his mind he knew that Gohan would eventually outmatch him in every aspect. The motivation that Gohan had drove him to train like a maniac, and even went so far a few days that he actually heard his bones crack, and Piccolo was no different. His determination for world domination was also intense, and he would do anything to get it, even if it meant training until he passed out from exhaustion.

Gohan still was watching the sun as he thought about Piccolo. Gohan truly did care for him, after all, he was his only true family now, and he also took time out of his schedule to train the boy, but something seemed wrong. Deep in Gohan's heart, he truly felt that Piccolo was deceiving him, but he would always bury this deep within and never truly think about it, which was what kept him by Piccolo's side no matter how tortuous his training would get. However, if there was one thing that Gohan did know, it was that Goku needed to pay, even if he didn't intend to put Gohan through all of the mental anguish, Piccolo had prodded him enough to make sure that all Gohan wanted was revenge, and revenge he would have.

Gohan clenched his fists in rage as he stood up, however his thought train was interrupted by Piccolo.

"It's time." He told the boy, who turned around and nodded to his master. Their regular training day would now start. They would go to the mountains and spar for a while, then Gohan would rest for a moment 'most days' he reminded himself, and then Piccolo would teach him some kind of technique.

"Where are we going today Piccolo?" Gohan asked, knowing full well Piccolo's talking rules had gone out of effect a while back. Piccolo smiled to himself.

"Somewhere different." Gohan stared at him, confused as to what he meant.

"Do you mean a new training spot?" Gohan asked, Piccolo shook his head no.

"This time, were going to a village." Gohan's face slightly lit up at the thought of human interaction, not that Piccolo wasn't a wonderful conversationalist or anything. "Don't get excited kid, I'm only going to do this once." Piccolo turned around "Follow me Gohan." He blasted off, and Gohan quickly followed suit.

Even if Gohan had learned to fly three months ago, it still scared him slightly every time he did it. He wasn't quite used to it yet, and Piccolo took advantage of his fear. The green one flew high in the sky, and Gohan was forced to fly higher as well, Piccolo hoped that by doing this he would eliminate the boy's fear of flying.

This day, however, Gohan pushed his fear as far back from himself as he possibly could, as today he would be meeting new people, a prospect which he had never thought Piccolo would give to him. They flew for what seemed to be forever to the boy, and finally Piccolo spoke up. "It's not far now." They kept going for a while until Piccolo started to descend from the sky, which Gohan was relieved by. They both landed in the center of a small village, it seemed that it was only a town of about 50 people, but everyone who was outside at the time stared at the two of them, awe struck at their ability to fly.

"Hi!" Gohan yelled to the people of the village, Piccolo just stared at the citizens menacingly.

"Gohan, we aren't here so you can make friends." Piccolo explained to the boy, who stared up at the man inquisitively.

"What do you mean Piccolo?" Gohan asked, Piccolo only smiled. As the boy stared on, Piccolo had found a target, and ran over to grab him.

"Ahh! What do you think you're doing! Get your hands off of me you monster!" The man yelled as Piccolo dragged the man by the arm over to Gohan.

"What are you doing Piccolo! Let him go! He didn't do anything!" Gohan yelled as his master stood in front of the boy, holding the man tightly, which made the man yell in pain. Piccolo was displeased by Gohan's objection, and showed it by staring at him with a face that made Gohan cringe.

"Shut up boy, this is what I came here for." Piccolo scolded as the townspeople all ran into their homes, screaming. The man who Piccolo was holding had been screaming this whole time, yelling at Piccolo to let him go. "And as for you, you pathetic worm…" Piccolo tightened his grip on the man's arm so much that it snapped almost in two.

"AAAHHHH!" The man screamed in agony as Piccolo threw him to the ground. A sadistic smile came across Piccolo's face as he saw the man fall to his knees before Gohan.

"This is one of your final tests Gohan, kill this man and you will officially have my full trust." Piccolo said as he smiled, making Gohan feel uneasy.

"B-but Piccolo, he didn't do anything!" Gohan yelled. The man had stopped screaming and was only crying his eyes out now, hoping that the boy would convince the green man to leave him alone. Piccolo clenched his hand into a fist, but relaxed himself and tried to convince Gohan.

"Look kid, this man is no different from your father." Gohan's eyes widened at the thought of Goku. "He would have abandoned you too if he had the chance."

"No! I'm nothing like your dad kid!" The man yelled to Gohan. This sudden outburst angered Piccolo, and he gave the man a quick punch in the back of the head, making him scream in pain.

"All of them are the same Gohan! Humans are weak and pathetic!" Piccolo yelled at the boy as he walked over to his side. Gohan's rage started to build as Piccolo goaded him to do evil.

"This is wrong Piccolo! I don't want to do it!" Gohan yelled, Piccolo wouldn't let him off that easy.

"Look at him Gohan! He would kill you in an instant if he had the chance! He deserves to die!" Piccolo yelled back as he smiled and kept his eyes wide open.

Gohan screamed in a wild rage "I will not do it!" Piccolo started to laugh.

"Kill him now Gohan! Do it and make me proud! Kill this pathetic man! DO IT!" Piccolo screamed as he laughed manically, making Gohan's anger peak.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Gohan yelled as he put both of his hands in front of him "GOKU!" He yelled as he blasted the man with a ki so strong that he incinerated the crying man, along with a few houses. Exhausted, Gohan fell to the ground, crying and wishing that he hadn't killed the innocent person. Piccolo smiled at the child, and knelt down to put his hand on the boy's back.

"Good job Gohan, you've made me very proud." Piccolo told the boy, who had barely listened to what his mentor had told him. The evil man got up and looked at the damage that Gohan had caused and admired it, thinking back to when he himself would have incinerated this entire village in a heartbeat if he wanted to. As a matter of fact, he did want to do it now, but he had other plans. "Get up boy, you aren't finished yet." Gohan slowly started to rise to his feet, eyes wide open and staring at the ground. "I will come back to this village in one hour, and if these people aren't all dead by then, I'm going to kill you." Gohan didn't move, and Piccolo decided to take off, leaving Gohan to his duty. 'Make me proud boy' Piccolo thought as he chuckled to himself, flying into the distance.

* * *

**With the death of Gohan's innocence, what does his future look like? Will he truly follow in Piccolo's evil footsteps? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	7. Chapter 7: The Arrival

**Chapter 7: The Arrival**

The boy wasn't the same. He would never be the same. Pushed to his moral limits by the very man who he trusted so much. The boy inside of Gohan had died, and in its place was an empty shell of a child, who lived for only two purposes. Serve his master Piccolo, and destroy the one who sent him on his path of evil. The day that he had annihilated the village was the day that permanently marked Gohans travel into the path of darkness, one that wouldn't be stopped very easily. However, Gohan wasn't as much evil as he was obedient, he would jump on every word that Piccolo would tell him to do. If he told the boy to sit, he would sit. If he told the boy to kill a defenseless animal, he would do it, but Gohan would never harm another being unless he was ordered to do so, barring Goku, or if it tried to harm him first. Inside he was still the same caring child, but that was deep, deep down, in a place that seemed totally unreachable by anyone, which was a fact that Piccolo relished to its fullest. Never would he have to worry about the child rebelling against him, for now he had the perfect little soldier, one who would wait on him hand and foot, a complete tool of destruction to be used at his will. Through the months of training that had passed after Gohan's switch into the dark path, the boy had shown an amazing increase in power, not even complaining once about the injuries he sustained during the training, Piccolo knew that the boy had grown a great deal, however he was always just slightly behind his master.

Piccolo trained even harder than his student, spending day and night trying to perfect his technique, meditating to increase his mental capacity, training rigorously with Gohan to make himself stronger. He was absolutely sure that no one would be able to even lay a finger on him, nor would they be able to beat his new 'pet' as well. However, one thing still bothered him, and always lingered in the back of his mind. The damn child had made a permanent imprint on him, something that he had never let happen before. He cared for the child, even in his own, sick, twisted way, it was something he was unfamiliar and uncomfortable with. He was the closest thing that he had to a son, but Piccolo refused to think of the boy in that way, instead trying to focus his energies on punishing the child to make him feel better for his own weak, caring feelings.

However, Gohans mind was at a constant battle with itself. Every time a thought would come up telling him that what he was doing was wrong, he would push it back and keep it there. How many countless innocents had he killed since that day? He couldn't keep track after about 200, which wasn't even half of the damage that Piccolo had ordered him to do. Terrorizing towns and villages had seemed to become a natural part of life for Gohan and his master, who did it at least once a week. All of the screaming woman and children had not even put a damper on the child's obedience, and all that the child would do was drown it out with the thought of Goku, and a rage would fill him that shook the very foundation of his soul. Goku had become his primary source of malice and hatred, as he now completely believed that Goku was responsible for everything that had been wrong for the past months, and why he was left alone in this world, with only his master to keep him from the total brink of insanity.

Piccolo was in the mountains, talking with his pupil on the day that the Saiyans would arrive, speaking about the very nature of evil. "Your soul" Piccolo explained "will forever be tainted, and you should never look back." Gohan nodded and continued to listen "the reason that I have become what I am today is because of the fact that I never forgot what made me hate humans in the first place." Gohan stared up at the man with a curious demeanor.

"Why do you hate them so much master?" Gohan asked, which was certainly an anomaly as of late, as the child would rarely speak.

"As you already know, humans are weak, they are pathetic, and they serve no purpose at all." He stated "they are falsely clever and will do anything to escape their own death." Piccolo crossed his arms. "They fear death to the very core, whereas people like you and I have ascended beyond that point, we are the higher beings in this world, death has no power over us, no one can even touch us." Gohan nodded and continued to listen "All these humans are idiotic, what purpose would it serve to help those fools when you get nothing in return?" At one point in time, the child may have chimed in and told Piccolo that it was the 'right thing to do.' However, under the current circumstances, all Gohan did was nod.

"I understand master." Gohan said emotionlessly, which made Piccolo smirk a bit.

"Why aren't you talkative today?" Piccolo jested, all Gohan did was stare at the ground. Even though Gohan had essentially become the perfect minion, Piccolo did think it was rather depressing that Gohan never showed any emotion. "It's been a year, Gohan." Piccolo said, looking over to the horizon. "The Saiyans will be here soon, but I think we've trained enough to destroy anyone who crosses us." Piccolo chuckled and shifted his gaze at Gohan, who looked over to where Piccolo was staring at earlier.

"Never underestimate your enemy, even you taught me that." Piccolo's eyes shot wide open. Had Gohan actually tried to teach the teacher? The master shot his gaze back at the horizon in anger.

"That may be true, but we've trained each and every single day for this moment." The boy looked back down at the ground.

"Master, I don't want you to die…" Gohan stated, tears forming in his eyes. Although this normally would have displeased Piccolo, the fact that Gohan was showing any form of emotion showed that he was recovering from the emotional scars that Piccolo had given him.

"Gohan…" Piccolo said softly, raising his hand, about to pat the child on the head, but he heard something in the distance, and then felt a great surge of power. "Gohan! They're here!" Piccolo shouted as he shot back at how much power he was feeling.

"Yeah, your right, I just felt them." Gohan said as he jumped to attention, arms at his sides. The Piccolo deduced that at the speed they were going, they would be getting to their location in about two minutes.

"Master, four more power levels in the distance." Gohan stated as Piccolo felt the energy as well.

"It's those damned friends of your father." Piccolo snarled as Gohan instinctively shot into his battle stance. "They'll get here about the same time as the Saiyans."

"Are they our enemies, master?" Gohan asked Piccolo, who shook his head.

"Not this time kid, but they will be after we finish off these Saiyans." Piccolo chuckled as everyone approached their location. The two of them waited for about a minute, and finally two men touched down in front of them. There was a small one and a large, bald one. Just by looking, both Piccolo and Gohan thought that the larger one would be the most powerful, but for some reason Piccolo could sense that the smaller one was holding back a lot of his energy.

"Hey Vegeta, it's a Namek, why is he here on earth?" The big bald one asked the smaller of the two Saiyans. Piccolo was confused as to what the two of them meant by "Namek."

"These Dragon Balls on earth make sense now Nappa, this Namek must have created them. He has to be the one who killed Raditz as well." Vegeta smirked at his revelation, while the big one started to smile.

"I suppose you two came here to try and revive your buddy." Piccolo said calmly, to which the small one replied:

"Ha! You mean the fool who was defeated by a lowly Namek like you? That would be a waste of a wish." He started laughing, though Piccolo chuckled along as well.

"I can't say that I'm not surprised" Piccolo smiled, which angered and confused the Saiyans "I figured that you two would be like this." Gohan watched on as his master exchanged words with the Saiyan. Soon, the rest of the Z fighters touched down, who included: Yamcha, Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu.

"We got here as fast as we could." Tien said to Piccolo, who ignored him and kept his conversation with Vegeta going.

"So tell me Saiyan, what are these 'Nameks' you keep speaking of?" Piccolo asked, to which Vegeta chuckled at.

"You mean you really don't know what your own race is?" Piccolo's eyes widened as he heard of his true origins. All of his life he had wondered what he was, but he had given it up, and now, all of a sudden, it had been thrust upon him. Even if it was just a name, he knew that he now had a race, and that was just enough to shock him.

"Hello? Are we invisible or something?" Yamcha yelled over to the two, Piccolo only stared at the ground, contemplating his very existence.

"Nappa, I'm tired of those idiots standing over there, how many Saibamen do we have left?" Vegeta asked his friend, who lifted a bag out of his armor.

"Looks like we have about six Vegeta." The small one smirked.

"That's perfect, one for each of those fools." Vegeta said "Read their power levels Nappa." The large one clicked a button that made his scouter show many different symbols that the fighters couldn't understand. After the symbols stopped moving, the large Saiyan laughed.

"Their total combined power level is only 1000!" Vegeta smiled as Nappa chuckled along, however, Piccolo's head shot up with a sadistic smile.

"I don't think so! Wait while I show you just half of my power!" Everyone besides Gohan and the two Saiyans stood back as Piccolo began to power up. A large aura surrounded the Namekian as his power level jumped exponentially, wind surrounding him and blowing away everything near him.

"Nappa!" Vegeta yelled, the larger Saiyan nodded as he checked Piccolo's power.

"Woah, Vegeta! It's over 1500, and rising!" Vegeta smiled at this as Nappa read off more of the scouter "2000! 2500! 3200!" Finally, It stopped raising at 3700. "Wow… this Namekian is way stronger than we thought; he's almost as strong as me!" Vegeta nodded to his friend.

"Yes, he should give you a bit of a challenge shouldn't he?" Vegeta smiled. "No need for the Saibamen Nappa, this Namek would just kill them all with ease." Piccolo smiled at his adversaries.

"This isn't even my full power." He laughed, as he hadn't even taken off his weighted clothing yet. The other fighters were in awe at the unexpected power that Piccolo had in his grasp.

"Woah… How did Piccolo get so strong?" Krillin yelled to the other fighters, who just shrugged. Gohan stood silently still, not saying a word, or expressing any emotion.

"Should I fight him Vegeta?" Nappa asked his leader, who stared at the Namekian for a moment.

"Sure, just don't kill him; otherwise we could lose the Dragon Balls." Nappa nodded as he began preparation for a battle. Gohan had enough, and stepped in for a moment.

"If you want to hurt my master, you're going to have to go through me." Gohan spoke up, which surprised everyone in the area.

"Gohan! Are you nuts?" Krillin screamed to the child. 'You're a good kid.' Thought Piccolo as he smiled, powering down to let the spotlight be shown on Gohan.

"Aww, does the little kiddy want to play?" Nappa laughed at the child, who turned his head to face Piccolo. His master nodded, and Gohan nodded back. The child stepped forward, took off his weighted cape, threw it aside, and started to power up to a level no one could believe.

"Wow Vegeta! This kid is packing some serious power!" Nappa shouted, reading off the powers on his scouter "He just shot up from a 500 to 2000!" However Gohan didn't stop there, he kept on escalating. "3000? This scouter must be busted!" Nappa yelled, however the power kept rising. "Oh no… 4300, 4800…" Nappa's expression turned into one of sheer terror as he watched the child being surrounded by an intense aura that blew the weaker fighters onto their backs.

"Gohan is a monster!" Yamcha shouted while rooting for the child.

"You got that right!" Tien agreed, the other fighters laughed and cheered for Goku's son.

"Vegeta! Th-this isn't p-possible!" Nappa shrieked as he saw that Gohans power had risen to over 6000. "It just can't be!" Gohan stopped powering up and capped his power at 6500, which relieved Nappa immensely.

Vegeta only watched the child, annoyed that someone so small could have such a high power level. 'If this keeps up, both the child and the Namek may overwhelm me, I must keep my guard up.' Vegeta thought as he watched Gohan, who was obviously ready to battle. However, he finally noticed something that he should have from the beginning, Kakarot wasn't with them.

"Where is Kakarot?" Vegeta yelled over to the Namekian, who was confused at the moment.

"Who are you talking about? There's no one by that name on earth." Piccolo explained, after some thought he came to the conclusion that Goku was the one he was talking about. "Do you mean Raditz's brother?" He asked.

"Of course I do you idiot! Where is he?" An impatient Vegeta snarled at the warrior, who smiled.

"He's dead, I killed him." Everyone shot back at this, besides the Saiyans.

"So then I trust he will not be participating in this fight?" Piccolo laughed at the thought of Goku even needing to lift a finger against these weaklings.

"Not when I have my way with you fools." Piccolo said, angering the small Saiyan to the core.

"How dare you speak to me such a way you imbecile!" Nappa looked over to his friend, who was powering up a bit.

"Wait! Vegeta, let me fight first!" The bald one intervened. Vegeta calmed down quite a bit and smiled.

"Let's see if you can even last one minute against Nappa." Vegeta bragged as Nappa began powering up to his max, just above a power level of 4000.

"Wow, that guy is ripped!" Yamcha stated, seemingly admiring Nappa's rather large muscles. Piccolo scoffed at his comment, having already grown immensely annoyed at the humans voice. Although he might have made good fodder for the fight ahead, Piccolo decided to strike some fear into the hearts of the other humans and let them know that he was no friend of theirs.

"You wouldn't even make decent fodder." Piccolo smirked, turning to face the human as Yamcha donned a face of sheer confusion.

"What are you…" a thin beam of ki was sent straight through Yamcha's chest, penetrating his heart and killing him instantly. As his body slumped to the ground, the three remaining human fighters all watched in horror.

"Yamcha!" Krillin yelled, eyes gaping in terror at his friend's dead body. Piccolo turned around to face an awe struck Nappa, who looked right at the man Piccolo had murdered, however Vegeta just smiled.

'I like your style Namek' He thought as he looked over to find the boy Gohan was waiting patiently, as if to be waiting for an attack order.

"If any of you idiots tries to harm me in any way, you will end up just like Yamcha." The three of them huddled around their friend and cried for him, which made Piccolo scoff at their moronic behavior. "Gohan, you can attack whenever you want." Gohan nodded to Piccolo, and then looked directly into the eyes of a terrified, yet totally excited Nappa, who took off his Saiyan armor.

"Ok kid; let's see what you're made of!" Nappa yelled as Gohan started to sprawl an evil smile across his face. He was going to enjoy this.

* * *

**How will Gohan fare against this brutish Saiyan? What will the death of Yamcha mean for the humans? Find out next time on Piccolo's Choice!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	8. Chapter 8: Gohan the Relentless

**Chapter 8: Gohan the Relentless**

The ground trembled as the two powerhouses clashed in the beginning of their titanic duel, with Nappa and Gohan locking fist's with one another. The aftershock threw the two warriors flying back, they regained their balance soon after, and that's when Nappa threw a large ki blast Gohan's way. The boy smiled as he twisted his arm behind his head and slammed his fist into the ball of energy, sending it plummeting into a nearby mountain. Nappa was awe struck that a mere child could block one of his strongest attacks with ease, but decided to not let it get to him, and charged at the boy. Gohan made a swift movement to the left as he dodged Nappa's fist, and elbowed the larger man in the face, sending him plopping onto the ground a few feet from Gohan.

"Damn it kid, you're annoying!" Nappa screamed as jumped up and threw a punch at the boy, who dodged once more and pummeled Nappa with a barrage of fists. Nappa recovered from Gohans assault and flew back to get his bearings, Gohan only stood in place and watched the man panting and cursing the boy.

"You… you're nothing! I am a Saiyan elite! You're nothing compared to me!" Nappa panted out as he held his stomach in pain.

'You won't be an elite anymore if you're beaten by this kid.' Vegeta thought as he watched on. Nappa smiled, which confused Gohan.

"What are you smiling about you fool?" Gohan asked over to the large Saiyan, who started to speed towards him at an incredible rate. Gohan was caught off guard by this and Nappa slammed his fist into Gohan's stomach, sending the boy flying into the sky, however, he quickly regained his balance. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, that hurt. Piccolo stood silent, and let his student fight his own battle.

"How does it feel kid? Pretty bad right!" Nappa laughed, but Gohan was at it again, and zoomed at the man at such a blinding speed that no one but Piccolo, Nappa and Vegeta could see.

"Shut up." Gohan whispered as he plowed the Saiyan in the face. Nappa's eyes bulged as the fist came into contact, and he was sent flying once more.

"Damn you!" Nappa screamed as he picked himself up off of the ground. 'I have to hand it to the big guy, he's resilient.' Piccolo smirked as Gohan ran at him once again. This time Nappa was ready, and he blocked Gohan's attack and started throwing punches back at him. Gohan blocked and dodged most of his attacks with ease, with only a few that even came close to hitting, and it seemed to everyone watching that Gohan was just toying with Nappa. However the Saiyan had a trick up his sleeve. "Die!" He screamed as he blasted a ball of energy that hit Gohan on the chest, hurtling him back to the ground.

Gohan grunted as he made contact with the earth, and Nappa took advantage of this situation by speeding down do Gohan and slamming onto his chest with his legs as he smashed towards the ground. Gohan screamed in pain, and Nappa started to pound away at the boy, getting down and punching the child over and over, beating his face into a bloody mess. Gohan was nearing unconsciousness, however he knew that he couldn't lose this fight, and he exerted all of the energy he could to get the big lug off of him.

"AAAAAHH!" Gohan screamed as an aura was washed over him, pushing Nappa off of the boy and sending him back, making him crash against the ground. Gohan could see now that while he was much stronger than Nappa, the Saiyan just had too much fighting experience to toy around with.

"Ha, you may have been able to slither out of that one, but I'm going to kill you next time!" Nappa yelled as he sped at the boy once again. Gohan wouldn't toy with his prey this time. Mustering all of his strength and speed, Gohan quickly dodged Nappa's attack and slammed his fist square into the Saiyan's chest. The punch was so powerful that it made Nappa double back in sheer pain; he had never felt anything like this before.

"D-damn k-kid…" He exhaled as he held onto his chest. To Nappa it felt as if his innards had exploded.

Things were going well for Gohan, which pleased Piccolo to no end; however, Yamcha's friends were still behind him, grieving.

"Damn it Piccolo… why'd you have to kill him over something so trivial!" Krillin whispered to himself, as Tien and Chiaotzu started to look at the battle between Gohan and Nappa. Krillin would not accept his friends death so easily and secretly vowed to himself that he would get revenge. Krillin slowly got up to his feet and started charging one of his most signature moves.

The two fighters had regained some of their strength and were at it again, punching and kicking at each other with as much force as they could, as well as dodging and blocking each other's blows. Nappa broke through Gohan's defense and socked him right in the face, but the boy was barely hindered and the exchange of blows continued, neither Nappa nor Gohan making any leeway over each other.

Krillin had decided that he had built up enough energy by now, and decided to finally unleash it on his friend's murderer "Destructo Disk!" Krillin yelled as he threw it directly at Piccolo, who had sensed what Krillin was doing the whole time, and did a back flip to avoid it. Next Piccolo took control of the disk himself by placing his hand over the top of the disk and concentrating on the ki formed inside of it, he then landed on the ground and launched the disk straight at Krillin, with such a speed that it was unavoidable.

"Yamcha…" Krillin whispered as the disk sliced him directly in two, as well as a mountain behind him. Both Tien and Chiaotzu were shocked at this and watched in sheer terror as Krillin's top half was severed from his bottom half.

"Noooo!" Tien and Chiaotzu yelled at the same time "Krillin!" All Piccolo did was chuckle.

"You both heard me, and if one of you pulls a stunt like that again I'll kill the both of you." He laughed as he turned to witness Gohan and Nappa attempting to exchange blows with one another.

"Chiaotzu…" Tien whispered to his friend "Get out of here while you can, I'll stay here in case one of them needs me." Chiaotzu looked shocked.

"No Tien! Piccolo just killed two of our best friends! Maybe we're on the wrong side!" The small one protested, but Tien shook his head with a stern face.

"No Chiaotzu, these Saiyans have vowed to destroy the world... Piccolo is a monster, but if he dies, the Dragon Balls are gone forever." Tien explained "Without him we can never get Yamcha or Krillin back." But suddenly, something donned on Tien.

"Oh no, Tien, what is it?" Chiaotzu asked as his friend hung his head in sadness.

"Krillin…" Tien whispered "He was already brought back once…"

"Oh no!" Chiaotzu shrieked. "Krillin… now he's gone forever…" Tien came back to his senses and continued.

"Please Chiaotzu, go to Kame house, I'll come back to you when I'm through here."

"But Tien!"

"Now!" Tien ordered the small one, who reluctantly followed what his friend told him and flew off into the distance 'Goodbye my friend, for I don't think I am long for this world…'

Back in the fight, Gohan and Nappa had still neither gained any advantage over the other, and Gohan knew that in order to beat this idiot, he had to take things more seriously. Nappa threw punches at Gohan as he blocked and dodged, trying to find an opening in the Saiyans constant stream of punches, however before he could, Nappa plastered the boy directly on the cheek. This sent Gohan spiraling upward, but he regained balance and decided to go with a ki blast to counter Nappa, who was speeding up towards the boy. Gohan placed both of his hands above his head and collected as much ki as he could.

"Masenko!" Gohan screamed as he shifted his hands to face Nappa, who was surprised to find a large beam of yellow ki that was speeding toward him at an alarming pace.

"Oh no!" Nappa yelled as he tried to dodge out of the way. The beam missed Nappa narrowly as it crashed down to earth, causing tremors as soon as it made contact. 'This kid is too tough… How can I even beat him?' Nappa asked himself as he saw Gohan panting from the last attack he had fired at the Saiyan. He took advantage of the weakened state of the boy and shot up at him again, only to find that it was a ruse created by Gohan when he grinned and fired another ki blast at Nappa, this one hit.

"Damn it Nappa, you're getting beaten by a kid!" Vegeta yelled to his friend, checking his scouter to find that both Nappa and Gohan had taken a 1000 point power loss since the start of their battle. Nappa crashed to the ground as Gohans ki blast dissipated, and blacked out for a moment, waking up to see the boy zooming towards him, fists blazing with fury.

"No!" Nappa screamed as he guarded his face, however Gohan hadn't been aiming there, and jammed his fist right into Nappa's stomach. The large Saiyan's eyes grew, and he tried to yell in pain, but all that came out was blood. 'He's finished.' Piccolo smirked. Gohan immediately started to pound on the man's stomach, blow after blow after blow, with Nappa couching up more and more blood as Gohan continued. Although Gohan didn't normally enjoy beating on someone, this time he enjoyed it thoroughly, as a sick smile came onto the boys face, he pounded on Nappa even harder, resulting in more blood loss for the Saiyan.

"Damn it Gohan… just stop and finish it already, he's taken enough of a beating as it is…" Tien said to himself quietly as Gohan continued to enjoy torturing Nappa. 'That's it Gohan, keep it up.' Piccolo thought as he laughed to himself.

"You!" Gohan screamed as he punched Nappa's stomach one time "Are!" He yelled again, punching the Saiyan again "Pathetic!" Gohan jabbed at Nappa three more times and continued to relish the blood that covered the ground. Although Vegeta actually cared very little for Nappa, he did not wish to see him suffer so horribly, after all, he was a Saiyan.

"Enough!" Vegeta yelled at Gohan, who stooped pounding on Nappa a moment to look at the one who had yelled. "I don't know if you're getting some sort of sick pleasure out of beating the life out of Nappa, but I think that he's had enough!" The Saiyan yelled at Gohan, who got up slowly off of Nappa, who had been beaten so badly that he was completely paralyzed.

Gohan smiled and looked back at the man he had completely destroyed in battle and shook his head in disgrace. "You truly were a pathetic opponent." He said as he lifted his hand up to face the large Saiyan's face. Everyone watched as Gohan built up a large ball of ki, and blasted it at Nappa's head, incinerating it and essentially decapitating him.

"Good job Gohan, excellent work." Piccolo praised the boy as he turned his attention to Vegeta, who was fuming with anger. "What's wrong Vegeta? Are you angry because you know that you stand no chance?" Piccolo taunted the small Saiyan, who shot a glare at Piccolo.

"You stay out of this battle Namek, this one is between me and the kid!" Vegeta yelled as he took off his scouter, throwing it to the ground. "I'll have you know that I'm 5 times as strong as Nappa." Vegeta said proudly, smiling at Gohan, who only looked at him with another sick smile. Gohan turned to his master, who in turn looked at the boy.

"Should I master?" Gohan asked.

"Go ahead kid." Piccolo smiled as he, Tien and Vegeta watched the boy power up once more, reaching a level beyond that of which he fought Nappa on. Vegeta regretted taking his scouter off as he saw the boy don a sadistic smile as the aura surrounding him exploded with energy, making him even more powerful than before.

"D-damn you kid; you're still no match for the prince of all Saiyans!" Vegeta yelled as he watched Gohan continue to power up. Vegeta also began to raise his power, and soon Gohan had reached his max, while Vegeta kept going to try and find a suitable level to fight the child at. Finally, the prince stoppedand faced the grinning child, who was acting as if he was the greatest fighter in the world. 'I'll show you, you little brat!' Vegeta thought to himself, getting into his attacking stance as did Gohan. "You had better be ready boy." Vegeta smirked as he blasted off towards Gohan, who blasted a Masenko at Vegeta. The Saiyan was caught off guard by this, but swatted it away at the last second, startling the child with his power. The small Saiyan continued his warpath towards Gohan and when he reached him he attempted to kick him in the stomach, but Gohan would not allow it. The boy blocked Vegeta's attack, grabbed his exposed leg, and threw him into the sky. However, Vegeta regained his balance sooner than Gohan thought he would, quickly started to gather ki for one of his most awesomely powerful attacks.

"Galic!" He yelled as he began to bring his hands down do face the child "Gun!" The large ball of ki came down fast, and Gohan wasn't sure that he could take it. The most logical thing to do would have been do dodge, however Gohan was a little concerned with the effect it would have on the earth. Taking in both of his options, Gohan decided to flee. He barely dodged the blast, and it hit down on the earth, creating a ripple effect where a fissure opened up, swallowing the ground wherever it was. The two fighters that were watching were forced to take flight, or else they would have been victims of the fissure.

Gohan rose to the air as well, still facing Vegeta, who was smiling at what he had done. "It's rather impressive, wouldn't you say?" He laughed "Not even at my full power yet and I can easily rip apart this planet." Gohan, now annoyed by Vegeta's attitude, blasted off at him. However he wasn't quick enough, and the Saiyan rammed his elbow into Gohan's back as he dodged. Gohan screamed as he was sent plummeting to the ground with a crash, and Vegeta decided to follow him down. "What happened to the cocky little boy who killed Nappa?" Vegeta mocked. Gohan laid on the ground for a moment, trying to grasp what he was up against, and found that he was horribly outmatched, even at his complete maximum power.

Piccolo, however, thought that Gohan was going easy on Vegeta, and was toying with him just as he had done so with Nappa. 'C'mon kid, beat this idiot' Gohan made his way back to his feet and stumbled a moment from the pain, but was otherwise was ready for battle once more.

"You're tougher than I gave you credit for kid." Vegeta said "Not many can say that they took a hit like that from the Saiyan prince and survived." Gohan stared at Vegeta, determined to keep fighting.

"I'm ready for round two." Gohan said as he charged at Vegeta with all of the strength that he could muster, determined to make his master proud.

* * *

**With one Saiyan down, can Gohan's power match Vegeta's? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	9. Chapter 9: Futile

**Chapter 9: Futile**

It was here and now that Gohan would prove Piccolo right, nothing else in this world mattered to the boy except for his master. Since he had no father to look up to, it was Piccolo whom he had been thrust upon, and in doing so made Piccolo out to be a fatherly figure to him. Gohan would never sway from the word of his master, no, he cared about him too much, he cared about him so much in fact, that he would die just to show him how strong he was, how brave he had become. Gohan was determined to pummel this Saiyan into a pulp, determined to prove that he was a great warrior, but most of all, determined to show Piccolo that Gohan was worthy of being called his son. 'Master…' Gohan thought as he raced towards the smirking Vegeta 'This one's for you…' The only thought as he approached Vegeta was one of sheer pain, knowing that no matter what would happen, he would die after this.

"Stupid kid!" Vegeta yelled as he blocked Gohan's onslaught of punches, dodging and ducking them as well. Gohan was so focus and determined, he refused to let up, even when his body knew that he couldn't take it. In a miraculous turn of events, somehow Gohan landed a hit on the prince, pushing him back slightly and causing both of the fighters to look in awe at each other.

"I… I hit-" Vegeta came back rather quickly, ramming into the boy with the full force of his knee, slamming into Gohan's stomach, causing him to cough out blood. Vegeta let the boy fall to the ground as Piccolo and Tien looked on, both completely and utterly surprised by Vegeta's raw power. 'Damn it Gohan, I thought I trained you better than that!' Piccolo thought, clenching his hands into fists and snarling at Vegeta, who was laughing at Gohan's misfortune.

"You idiot! Do you truly think that you could beat me? I am Vegeta, the Saiyan Prince! I will not be taken down by a mere child!" The Saiyan laughed and kicked the child over to his back and proceeded to taunt him. "You never stood a chance kid, I'm far better then you will ever be!" Gohan's eyes started to close in defeat, as he knew there was nothing he could do, however, Vegeta was determined to make him suffer. "Don't go off on me just yet kiddo!" He yelled as he slammed his foot down onto Gohan's chest, making him spurt out even more blood.

Tien had seen enough, he wasn't about to let Gohan just sit here and take a beating, even if Piccolo wouldn't help. "Piccolo!" He hollered over to the green one, who was so focused on the battle that he barely heard Tien. "We have to help Gohan, otherwise he's gonna die!" Piccolo turned around and snapped at Tien with a burning rage, like he was also wanted to help Gohan badly, but couldn't for some reason.

"Damn it Tien, don't even think about it! This is Gohan's fight, and if he needs to go through it till the bitter end then that's how it's going to be!" Despite Piccolo's harshness, there seemed to be a certain sadness in his voice, and Tien could sense that something was distressing Piccolo greatly. For now Tien decided not to interfere, suspecting that he would either be killed by Vegeta or Piccolo, or perhaps both even. Meanwhile, the young boy was getting beaten badly, as Vegeta kept ramming his boot into the boys stomach, making him cough more and more blood. As he was about to slip into unconsciousness, Vegeta spoke up once more.

"Aww, almost done kid? Well that's just too bad, you weren't very much fun." He chuckled, to which Gohan paid no mind "And after I kill you, I'm going to kill your precious master." Upon hearing this, the boy went completely insane, and as his eyes shot open, he lifted up into the air and powered up into an extreme that made Vegeta bolt back in terror. As Gohan was screaming and powering up, Vegeta had no clue what was going on. "What the hell is this? The kid was finished! This shouldn't be happening!" The Saiyan winced and got into battle stance as he saw a now enraged Gohan come in contact with the ground, a face so filled with malice and hatred that it put anything that Vegeta saw in his life to shame, it was as if he was staring into the eyes of death itself. Vegeta became uneasy, but nevertheless powered up in accordance to the boys new level, which was at least twice his former.

Not one to wait around, the enraged boy shot at Vegeta with all that he had, and although his body was beaten and broken, his soul didn't seem to care. He made contact with Vegeta's gut, causing him to double back in pain, but not before he grabbed onto the child arm and threw him across the landscape. Gohan wasn't fazed by this and headed straight back towards Vegeta, determined to kill the bastard. "Never say anything bad about my master again!" He screamed as he unleashed a barrage of ki, Vegeta had no choice but to take the blasts head on, and as they connected, a giant smoke screen shrouded the area. Believing his foe to be dead, Gohan powered down immensely, and landed with a plop to the ground.

Watching from the sidelines, Piccolo secretly praised his pupil, smiling for him and thinking; 'You never cease to amaze me kid.' Tien was far more surprised however, thinking that no one would ever be able to reach a power that high.

"Good job Gohan! You showed him didn't you?" Tien yelled over to the boy, who was now fully unconscious. Piccolo looked uneasy however, as he felt a surge of ki behind the wall of smoke that surrounded the damaged Vegeta. Piccolo shot back in horror as he watched Vegeta standing upright, completely unharmed other than a few singes on his armor, arms crossed. "B-but how!" Tien yelled, prompting Vegeta to smirk in sadistic pleasure.

"That actually hurt a little you know." Vegeta fixated his glare at Gohan, who was unresponsive at the time, which angered Vegeta slightly. "So the damn kid throws everything he has at me and doesn't even get to see himself fail? Damn it!" The Saiyan started walked over to the badly damaged kid before someone spoke up.

"I don't think you're going to lay your hands on that kid again." Piccolo said, arms crossed and looking with a stone cold glare. Gohan may have to finish his own battles, but now that he was unconscious, Piccolo saw no point in letting the kid die in vain. Piccolo would never admit it, but he truly was proud of Gohan, even if he hadn't beaten Vegeta, all that Piccolo wanted was for Gohan to do the best he could, which in the end is what happened, so Piccolo would now teach this bastard what it meant to mess with his pupil.

"Ha, so the Namek has a thing for the little kid eh? How sweet." Vegeta said sarcastically, turning his body towards Piccolo, who hadn't moved an inch.

"Look, you can go ahead and kill whoever you want; you can even kill Tien over there for all I care." Piccolo stated, gesturing over the way of the three eyed man, who shot back in fear "But no one ever insults me and gets away with it." Piccolo threw off his turban and cape, standing in front of the Saiyan prince with a smug look that practically screamed 'I'm gonna kick some ass.' However, knowing now that he could take the kid out with such ease, Vegeta figured that this guy wouldn't be much of a problem either. So he was older, who cared? Vegeta outranked him in strength and intelligence, which he would barely have to use in this fight with the Namek. Before Vegeta got ready to fight however, he aimed to ask a few simple questions.

"So Namek, where are those Dragon balls of yours?" Piccolo laughed and looked into the Saiyans eyes.

"Knowing Goku's friends, probably scattered all around the world by now." Vegeta's smile faded into a face of anger.

"Wait, what are you trying to tell me, that your little cronies have sent the all the way across the world to try and stop me?" Vegeta smirked again "Well it won't work; I'll just find them again and use my wish for immortality!" Vegeta laughed manically at Piccolo, who shook his head in amusement.

"You don't know how the Dragon Balls work, do you Shorty?" Piccolo grinned at his own humor while Vegeta snarled at the alien.

"Shut up Namek, how about you enlighten me before I kill you?"

"My pleasure." Piccolo said, dropping the smirk "You see, these Dragon Balls were created by someone named Kami, who I'm guessing you would call a Namek." Piccolo paused as Vegeta crossed his arms in annoyance. "Well, Kami made these Dragon Balls to only grant one wish at a time, and after that wish has been used up, the Balls are sent all throughout the planet to be sought after once more." Vegeta laughed at this.

"I already told you that I would fi-"

"I wasn't finished." Piccolo smiled. 'The insolence!' Thought Vegeta as he listened on. "There is a drawback to using them, and that is because after you make your wish, they become completely unusable for the next year." Vegeta's eyes shot open at Piccolo's statement, but calming down quickly after thinking a bit.

"It doesn't matter, I'll just go to Namek and use theirs!" Vegeta laughed as Piccolo pondered what he meant.

"Wait, are you saying that there is a whole planet full of people like me?" Piccolo asked Vegeta, unresponsive to the alien's question. "Tell me damn it!" He yelled, only to be met with the sly grin of Vegeta.

"It's not like it matters anyway, after I'm through with you, you won't ever be able to get there to find out!" Vegeta dropped into battle stance as did Piccolo. The two eyed each other viciously as neither of the two would make a move. 'Damn it Vegeta, make your move!' Piccolo screamed in his mind as they kept staring each other down. Secretly, Tien had also powered up, in case he needed to help Piccolo. Although Vegeta was strong, Tien wasn't about to let him destroy the one chance at returning his friend Yamcha to life, and maybe he could even get special permission from Shenron to bring Krillin back too! He could only hope as he watched the two evil warriors have their stare down.

Piccolo could take it no longer, and in a split second he blasted towards Vegeta at blinding speed. The prince caught the Nameks movements and punched him in the face, sending him careening down the landscape. Piccolo was damaged, but far from beaten as he caught himself and launched right back at the Saiyan. Vegeta was about to charge as well when he saw mirror images of the Namek coming at him now. 'It must be a trick!' He thought as he dropped into defensive stance, however, Piccolo showed up behind his back and slammed his leg into it as hard as he could, sending Vegeta flying this time. As the Saiyan regained his balance in the sky, he looked down to notice Piccolo was converging with two other Piccolo's, confirming his thoughts that it was just a trick.

"I'll admit that was a good one Namek, but you'll find I don't fall for the same trick tw-" Vegeta's sentence was cut short by yet another Piccolo who slammed both of his fists down onto the prince, making him fly towards the ground. Upon contact, he sped towards Piccolo in blind fury, intending to make him pay for the humiliation he caused. The Namekian knew he wouldn't be able to take full hit from the Saiyan, so he dodged out of the way just in time as Vegeta flew right past him.

Vegeta quickly turned around after his failed attempt to attack the Namek, and saw that Piccolo was already heading for him. They began a struggle of attack and defend, however, Vegeta's strength and speed were clearly too much for Piccolo to take, and Vegeta jabbed the Namekian square in the stomach, making him arch his back in pain. "Perfect." Piccolo could hear Vegeta say as he slammed his knee into the Nameks ribs and send a flurry of punches into his back. Piccolo had been battered, and Vegeta figured he was out for the count, and sent him flying a good 100 feet to land on his back.

Tien watched in sheer horror as he saw the last hope for humanities survival being thrown away with ease, and now, Tien was the last one left standing between Vegeta and the world. Tien knew that he couldn't beat the Saiyan, but he had to try, he would rather die defending the planet he called home, than running like a coward and letting earth be destroyed. He watched as Vegeta turn his head to Tien, laughing menacingly at the last fool of the bunch to be left standing. Obviously, this would be a short match.

"Looks like it's just you and me three eyes." Vegeta laughed as he looked over to Tien, who shot up in a defensive fighting stance. "Well, It was fun, but I-" A blast of ki blasted on Vegeta's back, which made him wince in pain.

"You didn't think it would be that easy did you?" A panting Piccolo said, with his hand still protruding out towards Vegeta. Tien was completely relieved as he saw Piccolo was back in action, albeit with a lot of bruising. "Don't worry about that weakling when you have me right here." The Namek smiled as Vegeta turned around, showing a face of total rage towards Piccolo.

"Why won't you ever DIE!"Vegeta screamed as he leapt into action, kicking and punching at the Namekian, who was somehow able to dodge most of the punches. Remarkably, he was able to punch Vegeta's stomach, and as soon as he had punched him, he put his palm right in the Saiyan's face.

"I hope you enjoy this!" Piccolo screamed as he released a large amount of energy from his hand, blasting Vegeta in the face and making him crash into the ground.

"Ahhhh! You bastard!" Vegeta screamed, holding his face with both of his hands. "You have no idea who you're messing with!" He rose to his feet sharply, causing Piccolo to wince in fear, and Vegeta moved his hands from his face to show that it had been severely scared and burned by Piccolo's attack. "I hope you've enjoyed living, because I'm going to kill you for doing this to me!" Vegeta screamed as he powered up to his maximum attack power, completely dwarfing Piccolo in every aspect.

"No…" Piccolo said quietly, taking a step back for fear of being killed. At that moment he contemplated running, it seemed like a pretty viable option at the time, but then Piccolo thought of Gohan, and how that bastard would undoubtedly kill him as soon as Piccolo would leave. No, he would stay and fight till his last dying breath, to protect his pupil, no, he had now come to the conclusion that throughout everything, the boy had proven himself worthy of being called his son, and he would not let this bastard lay a finger on Gohan. When Vegeta was done powering up, he looked at Piccolo.

"Now witness a power that you have never-"

"Tri Beam!" Yelled Tien as a surge of energy crashed into a thoroughly surprised Vegeta, sending him flying backwards. Although Tien wasn't near the level of power that Vegeta was, the Tri Beam was a powerful technique that even damaged the Saiyan prince slightly. Vegeta sprung back up in anger 'how could that weakling damage someone like me?' Vegeta thought as he eyed Tien with rage, not even noticing Piccolo's oncoming attack.

"Damn it!" Vegeta yelled as Piccolo slammed into his chest with a well aimed and powerful kick to the chest, sending him so the ground once more. Vegeta, however, was able to regain his ground and swiftly punched the Namek in the gut, then throwing him at the Tri Beam user. Tien, who was about to fire another one of his signature attacks, was hit by Piccolo, who sent them both crashing to the ground. A momentary pause occurred where Vegeta smiled at his feat, however it did not last long.

"Ahh…" Piccolo grunted as he got back to his feet, much to the amazement of Vegeta.

"You know, you are far more powerful than I gave you credit for Namek." Vegeta smirked "you've certainly held your own against me for a while now haven't you." Piccolo didn't respond, only panting heavily and walking forward slightly away from Tien, who struggled to get up as well. "I thought that this whole taking over the planet thing would be a walk in the park, but I guess you won't just give up so easily will you?" Once again, Piccolo said nothing and moved closer to Gohan as Vegeta was speaking. "You know, I really do hate it when people don't answer my questions!" Vegeta yelled as he zoomed towards the wounded Piccolo, ramming his leg into his back, making him fly forward and land on his face. Vegeta was right behind him, and kicked him over to his back. "Well, now that I think about it, I do need someone to take Nappa's place as my right hand man, what do you say Namek, willing?" Vegeta asked, half sarcastically. Piccolo spat on Vegeta's boots, to which Vegeta replied by stomping on Piccolo's face.

"AAAAH!" Piccolo screamed as Vegeta looked down on him in disgrace.

"I was hoping to get more from you, but oh well, looks like you won't be around to watch me completely destroy this planet." The Prince smirked, placed his hand in front of Piccolo and formed ki in his hand, ready for the finishing blow.

Piccolo was drifting, deep into unconsciousness, however he could make out one last thing before he blacked out, one thing that made him smile.

"KA ME HA ME HA!" the sound of Vegeta being hit by a ki blast was music to his ears.

* * *

**With Goku entering the fray, will the Earth finally stand a chance? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	10. Chapter 10: The Fall of the Prince

**Chapter 10: The Fall of the Prince**

The beautiful mountain landscape was nothing to Piccolo, as he stood before the world in which he would one day conquer. Sun setting on the horizon, he smiled at the thought, knowing that the people of earth would bow to his every whim. Of course, there would be people who opposed him, but those idiots would be cleansed by Piccolo himself, or by his young pupil Gohan. Ah yes, Gohan, his tool to be used in the name of destruction, one who did everything that Piccolo wished upon him, and would even die for him as well. 'You may think you're important to me kid, but your still just a pawn in a game that's much bigger than you.' Piccolo thought, wondering if what he was thinking was true. Did Gohan truly deserve to more? Piccolo didn't know, but what he was positive about was that his conquest of the world would not be stopped just because he got attached to one boy. 'Sorry Gohan, but I would kill you in a moment if I thought that it would further my own cause.'

As Piccolo stared into the wondrous sight of the setting sun, he pondered what it would be like when he had finally conquered this pathetic planet. What would change? Why did he even want this? A thought came to his mind; 'I will rid this planet of idiots like Goku and his friends, and once I am ruler, no one will be able to touch me! My rightful place as emperor of this planet will be fulfilled!' Piccolo chuckled as he imagined the life of being a ruler, so majestic, so luxurious, and so… destructive. He would bring every man, woman and child to their knees, and those who didn't would have their knees cut off accordingly so that they would have to bow in the presence of such a ruler as Piccolo.

Behind the green one, Goku had landed on a mountain, and for some reason was screaming "Piccolo, are you alright?" Piccolo was puzzled by this, and began to speak, yet nothing came out, suddenly he had found that he was in an immense amount of pain and started coughing blood. 'What the hell? I was fine just a second ago.' The Goku started screaming again. "Take this senzu bean!"

Piccolo's eyes shot open as he saw, to his chagrin, Goku, who had fed him half a senzu bean in order to heal the green one. However, although he would never admit it, Piccolo was glad that Goku had shown up to save the day.

"There we go, are you ok Piccolo?" Goku asked the Namekian, who pushed the Saiyan off of him and raised himself up slightly by his elbows.

"I'm fine you idiot, but you won't be if you don't pay attention to Vegeta over there!" Piccolo yelled at Goku, who turned his head slightly to see Vegeta, recovering from the kamehameha that he had endured, getting up on one knee, with a face full of rage the likes of which Goku had never seen before.

"Who the HELL are you?" Vegeta screamed, eyes practically bulging out of their sockets, wondering how in the world Piccolo could be just fine again. Goku looked around to find a dead Yamcha, an unconscious Gohan, a damaged Tien who was struggling to his feet, a dead man with no head, and the one that was by far the worst was Krillin, sliced right in two. Goku clenched his fists together in rage, not saying a word to his opponent, but rather heading over to his son.

"Goku, whatever you do, don't feed Gohan a senzu bean, it will only make things worse!" Piccolo yelled over to the orange clad man, who stopped in his tracks.

"What if we need him to fight?" Goku asked, not turning his head at all. Vegeta was rather annoyed at the man, who had ignored him this entire time.

"Don't ignore me! I am the prince of all Saiyans! Why is it that all of you people seem to think I'm not here!" Vegeta screamed into the sky, blasting an aura all around him which created a crater on the ground below him. Goku looked back over to the small Saiyan, who Goku could sense was far more powerful than he was at this point, but he also had a few tricks up his sleeve.

"I suppose you did this to all of them, didn't you Vegeta?" Goku asked in reference to the two dead fighters, and his unconscious son. Although Vegeta would have loved to take all the credit for the demise of his two friends, he couldn't, because he knew that if he told the fighter about Piccolo's involvement, it may shift the fighter's attention to the Namek.

"I haven't killed a damned thing since I've been on this rock!" Vegeta proclaimed, pointing to the real culprit. "It was that damn Piccolo who killed your friends; I had nothing to do with it." Instantly, the Namekian spoke in defense for himself.

"Don't listen to him Goku, he's trying to trick you!" Piccolo yelled as he rose to his feet. Goku, who was staring at the ground, powered up to his maximum, electricity protruding from his immense strength. Vegeta was at an anger peak with the infuriating Namekian, who may as well be the undoing of the prince as he knew it.

"Shut up Namek! You're the one who lies!" Vegeta screamed back, Goku powering up even further.

"Goku, what would I have to gain from killing them?" Piccolo yelled back, Goku reached his limit.

"Shut UUUUUUUP!" Goku screamed, exploding with rage. "I don't care who did it, my best friend is dead now, and I won't let you kill any more people!" The earth trembled as Goku looked at Vegeta, who was almost equally as angered as Goku was, absolutely fuming because of the Namekian.

"Fine! I guess I'll just have to kill you then Goku!" Vegeta screamed back, blasting off towards him while Goku was holding his ground.

"Kaio-ken!" Goku screamed, a red aura surrounding him as he rammed his knee into Vegeta's gut and punched his face so hard that the Saiyan careened across the barren wasteland. Piccolo looked at Goku with a stare of both satisfaction and utter confusion all at the same time 'how the hell did he do that? His power doubled in an instant!' Tien had the same thought in his mind as they watched Vegeta rise back up from the dirt.

"That was a lucky shot!" Vegeta yelled, wiping blood off of his cheek. Goku smiled a little at the excitement, however, his Kaio-ken had worn off and he quickly shot back into battle face, blasting off at the Saiyan with a raging speed. However, Vegeta countered Goku by throwing a ball of ki his way, which hit Goku right on the chest, sending him flying back in pain. Goku landed on his back and screamed as he rose back to his feet, seeing that Vegeta was headed straight for him.

"Kaio-ken!" The fighter shouted once more as the crimson aura exploded, blocking Vegeta's attack and delivering one of his own to the Saiyan's right temple. Vegeta was beginning to get annoyed and started to randomly, but with an amazing force, throw an insane amount of punches at Goku, who blocked and dodged his way through a lot of them. His Kaio-ken wore off however, giving Vegeta enough of an edge to plaster him right in the gut, sending him flying towards a mountain, and ultimately crashing into it, creating a giant dust cloud.

Tien was standing a good ways back from the fighting, looking on as Goku had just been blown away by Vegeta, thinking if there was even any hope of the fighter defeating the Saiyan at all, whereas Piccolo was obsessing over the fact that Goku had not only been much more powerful than Piccolo in his normal powered up state, but that he was able to substantially increase his power with a new technique. 'I thought he was dead, the dead don't train…' Piccolo thought as he pondered ideas of how Goku could have learned such a technique. Meanwhile, the smoke was clearing away from Goku, and Vegeta was anxious to see the kind of damage he had done to the man.

"You may be powerful Goku, but you are still no match for-"

"Kaio-ken times three!" Gou screamed as a red aura blasted out of the dust and slammed Vegeta's face, causing him immense pain. Goku kept hitting Vegeta over and over again, each hit getting stronger until Goku rammed his fist into Vegeta's exposed stomach, making him arch over in pain, to which Goku responded by clamping his fists together and slamming them into Vegeta's back, sending him crashing to the ground. The Kaio-ken dissipated as Piccolo saw Goku's face, one of sheer stoicism, unnatural for the usually happy man. Vegeta rolled over to his back and raised to his feet once again, taking a noticeably heavy damage toll from the last attack.

"Goku, do you have another senzu bean?" Piccolo yelled up, to which Goku nodded in response. "Give it to me quickly! Before Vegeta gets his hands on it!" Goku threw the other half of the bean towards Piccolo, who caught it and hid it in his belt while he watched Vegeta suspiciously, wondering if he had caught on to the beans unnatural healing power. The Saiyan looked up to the sky and saw something that made him laugh, which made everyone feel uneasy.

"MWAHAHAHA!" Vegeta laughed up to the sky, which made all of the onlookers stare up to the sky as well. Sure enough, there was a full moon that had risen over the sky, and Vegeta had already started changing.

"What is this?" Piccolo yelled, staring back down at the Saiyan, who displayed more and more symptoms of turning into a giant ape. This was the same thing that had happened to Gohan, and he was beginning to wonder why, apparently, the moon was to blame. "Goku, watch out! You have to take his tail off!" Piccolo screamed up to Goku, who nodded and got into an offensive stance. Vegeta was fully an Oozaru now, and his voice bellowed in the canyon:

"Now you see Goku, I am ten times as strong as I was before in this form, due to the full moon I will become your undoing!" The ape surprised Goku with his swiftness as he jumped into the air and slammed a large fist into Goku, sending him flying down to earth. The fighter hit the ground, breaking his fall with his hands and knees and quickly sprung away, running and dodging the Oozaru.

"Hey Piccolo!" Tien yelled as he landed next to the green one "Maybe we should help Goku out, we could easily take out his tail if we work together!" Tien had a point, but Piccolo still was unsure of if he wanted to help his enemy, even if it would save earth. Something caught Piccolo's eye that made him frustrated however, which was the fat man Yajirobe hiding behind a small boulder.

"You, fat man, get over here!" Piccolo growled at the weak fighter, who was alarmed by the alien's sudden anger and tried to dart away, however, Piccolo quickly flew over him and landed in front of the man, arms crossed and severely pissed. "Why the hell didn't you try to help me with that guy?" Yajirobe bowed his head at Piccolo and groveled at his feet.

"I'm s-sorry king Piccolo sir, I know I should h-have helped you but I'm a c-coward!" He cried, stating the whole truth. Piccolo thought of killing him right there, it would have made his day if he did, but for fear of Goku switching his anger towards himself, Piccolo decided to hold off for a while.

"You're lucky Goku is here, or you would be dead." Piccolo stated to Yajirobe, who rose to his feet and gulped hard.

A cat and mouse game had been going on between Vegeta and Goku, who would run into one another and then Goku would fly away to hide once more. This went on for a while until Goku decided to test his abilities on the ape.

"Hey smelly, over here!" He shouted to Vegeta, who swiftly turned around and met eye to eye with the man, who had gotten into a battle stance.

"You are an idiot, you know that don't you Goku?" Vegeta laughed in his deep Oozaru voice "You know, I mistook you for someone else for a moment when you showed up at the battlefield, but you have no tail, so you couldn't be who I'm looking for." Goku dropped his guard for only a moment before remembering that he had a tail when he was younger.

"I did have a tail once, but it was removed permanently some time ago." Vegeta stared at the man for a moment, and then started to laugh in sheer hilarity. There was a joke among the Saiyan's on planet Vegeta about a Saiyan getting his tail removed, which Vegeta was reminded of when Goku had told him his story. After the fit of laughing, his stare became cold once more, realizing he was in the midst of a traitor.

"So you ARE Kakarot." Vegeta stated, staring directly into Goku's eyes.

"I don't know why you people keep calling me that, my name is Goku!" He yelled as the Saiyan started laughing once more.

"Kakarot was the name given to you by your father, Bardock!" Goku shot back at the exclamation of his father's name, perhaps he was alive out there somewhere.

"My father…" Goku pondered for a moment while Vegeta recovered from laughing "Is he still alive?" Goku screamed at Vegeta, who smiled and bent down into a jumping stance.

"Maybe if you beat me, I'll tell you!" He said as he sprang at Goku, who was already preparing for it.

"Kaio-ken times four!" He screamed, hoping that it wouldn't obliterate his body as he completely blocked the massive monsters attack and pushed him back. Goku quickly reverted in order to conserve energy and was surprised by his amazing resolve in the times four state, thinking that he wouldn't have been able to handle it as well as he did. 'Better not try a five; I think that would kill me.' Goku thought as the Oozaru recovered from his fall, angrier than ever.

"Damn you Kakarot!" He yelled as he powered up, blasting away many mountains beside him. "I swear, I wi-" feeling a small amount of energy behind him, Vegeta jumped up and noticed that he had barely avoided getting his tail cut off by an energy attack that had been sent by Tien. The three eyed man cursed himself for his inaccuracy as Vegeta turned his head towards the now frightened man, who took a step back in fear of the giant ape. Goku took advantage and flew towards Vegeta, who only responded by swatting Goku away with the back of his hand, then turning his full attention to the one who tried to cut his tail off. Tien was about to retreat, but before he could, the Oozaru was already there, snatching Tien right out of the sky. "I'll teach you to mess with a Saiyan's tail!" He yelled as he squeezed Tien, making his bones crack and causing him to scream in pain.

As Goku was recovering from the attack by Vegeta, Piccolo smiled. Yajirobe wondered why, but he kept his mouth shut as he tried to sneak away to help Tien. He had gotten a few feet away when Piccolo spoke up. "Take one more step and it will be your last." Needless to say, Yajirobe stood still and didn't make another move, he barely even breathed.

Tien was finished, and the man knew it well. 'I tried Goku, I'm sorry…' He thought as he drifted into unconsciousness. Vegeta gave the man one last satisfying squeeze as he threw him towards the ground, making a huge "thump" noise as Tien hit the earth below. Goku was back up in the sky, and was even more distraught now because of Tien's apparent death. Vegeta turned around to face Goku, who was enraged far beyond that of which he had ever been in his life, and finally, he snapped.

'I don't care if it kills me; I want to end this now!' Goku thought, getting ready for the attack that may end his life.

"Kaio-ken!" He yelled 'Ha, no attack he can muster will be able to hurt me!' Vegeta thought, standing firm for Goku's attack.

"Times!" 'What does he plan on doing? Doesn't he know that the only way to defeat this guy is by taking off his tail?' Piccolo pondered.

"Five!" Goku screamed, attempting with all of his might to contain his power in his body while simultaneously trying to release it as well, which at first seemed to be working.

"His power! I-it's beyond anything I could imagine!" Piccolo yelled, staring inquisitively at the man, who was still powering up at an enormous rate. He held fast, and when he seemed to get the hang of it, his body rejected the power, and it convulsed as Goku screamed in pain. Vegeta laughed manically as he watched Goku fall down to the ground, in an immense amount of pain, obviously suffering from the attack that he had tried to use, however, Vegeta didn't care how much pain he was in, he would make the traitor wish he was never born.

"Damn you Goku! Why did you have to be so reckless! We could have won!" Piccolo yelled to Goku, who was in so much agony that he hadn't heard.

"So, Goku, It looks as if my greatest opponent is just as pathetic as the others after all." The Oozaru bellowed, chuckling at Goku's power drop. "Oh well, I guess you'll never know about your father then." Vegeta laughed heartily at Goku, who was still screaming from the pain induced by attempting the times five Kaio-ken. 'I don't know what my options here are…' Piccolo thought, watching intently as Vegeta taunted his rival.

"Damn it Piccolo, we have to do something!" Yajirobe yelled. 'He's right, if I don't help now were all screwed!' Piccolo responded quickly by throwing the man straight at Vegeta.

"Well, I've had my share of fun, it looks like it's time for you to die Kakarot!" Vegeta said, lifting up his boot over Goku's body, ready for the finish blow.

"Cut it off!" Piccolo said as Yajirobe flew through the air, regretting his earlier comments. 'Why can't I ever keep my mouth shut…' He pulled out his sword and aimed it at the tail, which he was approaching quickly.

"Oh god I hope I get this!" Yajirobe whispered to himself as he made a blind swipe at the tail, and heaving a sigh of relieve as he heard the sound of meat being cut. Vegeta screamed in agony, cursing the fighter who had taken his tail off.

"Ahh damn you!" Vegeta yelled while reverting into his smaller Saiyan form, not able to deal the finishing blow to Goku. As he reverted back to normal, he began to curse once more. "No! My tail! You cut off my tail you imbecile!" Vegeta screamed as his eyes darted around to find the culprit, seeing a man trying to hide behind a rock.

"You owe me Goku…" Yajirobe said quietly "Maybe he could buy me some food someti-"

"Galic Gun!" Vegeta screamed as the rock and Yajirobe were enveloped by a bright light, which incinerated both of them at the same time. 'At least I can have the satisfaction of that kill.' Vegeta thought as he smiled a bit, heading towards Goku once more. Vegeta twisted his head to the side as he saw Piccolo in action once more, slamming his leg into the now wounded and tired Vegeta, who sprung back up and started to attack Piccolo with a barrage of punches. He landed a hit and then began to smack the Namek around, reveling in the pain he was causing to the evil bastard, not wanting to stop attacking the Namek. Piccolo saved himself by kicking Vegeta's stomach and slamming his elbow into his face, sending him stumbling back once more.

"This time I'll kill you for sure Namek!" Vegeta screamed as he grabbed him by the shirt and threw him onto his back, tremendously hurting him. Vegeta then quickly alternated pummeling the alien with punches and kicks, making Piccolo hurt more and more after each blow. Just as Vegeta was about to finish him off for good, a ki blast hit him in the back, one that hurt him more than it should have. Vegeta turned around to see a badly hurt and panting Goku with his arm extended outward. The Saiyan was at an all time high, in anger that is, and turned his full attention to Goku. "You just DON'T know when to QUIT, do you Kakarot!" Vegeta said, walking over to Goku, who plopped back onto the ground, tired and without any more energy at all. "Well, I'm going to enjoy hurting you!" Vegeta stated as he reached Goku, stomping on Goku with his boot, causing his so much pain that he screamed in agony. "I should have killed all of you from the start!" He said, bringing down his boot one more time on Goku. "You have humiliated me!" Another stomp, resulting in a screaming Goku "weakened me!" another stomp from Vegeta "and you have betrayed your fellow Saiyans!" Vegeta yelled, crushing the man on his boots one more time. "Now I will make you suffer!" Vegeta screamed as he continuously stomped Goku with his boot and laughed.

'Never count me out Vegeta…' A now standing Piccolo thought, putting his index finger and middle finger on his forehead to charge power, all with Vegeta too busy beating the life out of Goku to notice. 'I won't let you win, I always win… I always will win no matter what!' The Namek thought, gathering as much power as he could for what would inevitably be the last attack of the entire fight. 'And besides, I should have been the one to kill Yajirobe.' Piccolo smiled as he gathered up the last of the energy he would need to end the battle, and lowered his fingers a bit.

"Sorry Vegeta, he's mine!" Piccolo screamed as he released all of the energy, in the form of a special beam cannon. Vegeta, who had been too busy enjoying kicking Goku, turned around to find that he had absolutely no time to react, and the ki beam was sent flying right through his chest.

* * *

**Does this spell the end for Vegeta? And what does Piccolo plan to do with Goku? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	11. Chapter 11: Next Move

**Chapter 11: Next Move**

An agonizing cry came from the Saiyan warrior, who had taken a serious blow from Piccolo's blast. In fact, Vegeta realized how fatal it was as soon as he fell to the ground, right on top of Goku, who screamed in pain along with the Saiyan prince. 'I don't know how the hell you did it Piccolo, but you did.' The Namek thought to himself, repositioning his body's posture into a more upright one, rather than the slightly bent over, former one that he displayed when he had released his beam. Through Piccolo's panting, he found a grin spread across his face, and started to walk over to Vegeta and Goku.

To the Nameks great horror and surprise, Vegeta actually began to rise to his feet for a moment, determined to finish the others off, but as soon as he got onto his two feet, he collapsed backwards and landed on his spine. Vegeta let out yet another scream of pain as he tried to move, however, all of his attempts were in vain, as his body was too badly damaged to even crawl. As soon as Piccolo saw this, he calmed down and began to slowly walk over to Vegeta once more, who looked up at the Namekian with a look of defeat, squinting and trying to get a clear view of what was before him, as his vision had gone blurry.

"Damn y-you Namek…" Vegeta said as loud as he possibly could, but it only came out as a soft grunting noise. The blast had gone straight through one of the Saiyan's lungs, and he was finding it hard to even breathe. Blood came trickling down his mouth as he attempted to speak again. "Y-you don't know…" Vegeta coughed up a fair bit of blood, pooling up in his mouth, which made him turn his head to the side to spit it out "don't know w-what you're in f-for when Frie…" Vegeta coughed out even more blood, which seemed to make a pool that his head rested on.

Piccolo had become curious; it seemed as if Vegeta was trying to give him a warning of some sort. 'Isn't that just cute' Piccolo thought as he smiled, crossing his arms as he stared at the Saiyan warrior. "What the hell are you babbling about?" Piccolo asked. Vegeta was unresponsive for a moment, but spoke up after he could muster a few breaths.

"P-power b-beyond anything you've ever…" More blood came spurting out of his mouth, bloodying up the ground near his head, and finally, the prince's eyes became totally void, and it was obvious to the world that Vegeta was no more.

"Good riddance." Piccolo said, turning around to go collect his cape and turban. However, Goku had gathered up the energy to speak finally.

"Piccolo… T-tien is alive, h-he needs the bean I gave you." The voice was raspy, and barely a whisper, but the Namek was able to hear with his unusually sensitive hearing. Piccolo shifted his gaze away from his weighted clothing, and towards Tien, who was barely alive. "He won't survive much longer…" The fighter added, Piccolo's pace stayed relatively the same. The green one made his way over to the fighter that had saved his life and knelt down to feel his vitals.

"Yeah, he's alive alright." Piccolo said as he took the half bean out from his belt, staring at it for a few moments. Goku became impatient and attempted to yell at Piccolo for his reluctance.

"Damn it Piccolo! He needs the bean now!" Goku scolded, which Piccolo did not take very lightly. The alien was deep in thought at the moment, but finally concluded one thing.

"I'm the one who defeated Vegeta right? Then I deserve the rest of this…" Piccolo tossed the bean into his mouth as Goku protested quite loudly, making his lungs hurt from speaking so much.

"What are you doing? Tien will die now!" Piccolo rose to his feet and smiled as Goku coughed out harshly.

"I haven't felt this good in a long time." Goku was taken aback by Piccolo's behavior, as he believed that his former arch-rival had at least made somewhat of a turn to the side of good.

"B-but… I thought you had changed Piccolo!" Goku said, obviously hurt and confused by this turn of events for him. The Namekian was chuckling to himself now.

'How could this idiot believe that I would convert to the side of good?' In fact, if anything, he had flown even farther away from the path of righteousness than he had ever been in his life.

"I helped you once Goku, against a threat that was harmful to _my_ life." Piccolo explained, turning to face Goku as he talked "I thought you were the most stupid person alive to want to sacrifice your life for a race of fools that couldn't even fathom our abilities, it's ludicrous." He spotted his weighted clothing's once more and headed over to them. "In the end, you were an idiot, and I don't work with idiots. True, when I killed you once, that fulfilled a whole slew of desires that I had wished for, but that wasn't enough for me, and now I want to kill you in a real fight." Piccolo had reached his clothes. "You're lucky that I'm going to spare your life today Goku, for unlike my father, I understand the meaning of patience and perseverance." Piccolo fastened his cape to his clothes as he continued. "I may create many problems for me by keeping you alive, but I feel as if it is necessary, after all, Vegeta said something that intrigued me…" He fastened his turban to his head and stood still for a moment, contemplating what the Saiyan was trying to say.

Goku was fuming with rage from this new development, as Piccolo could have easily saved the life of Tien with the use of the bean. But now, something dawned upon Goku, something horrible. "You… you bastard!" Goku yelled to the Namek, snapping him out of his deep thinking "You killed my friends, didn't you? Krillin… and Yamcha too!" Goku clenched his teeth in desperation, trying his hardest to rise to his feet, however his body was too weak.

"It's pointless to try and stop me now Goku, only you and I are the ones left conscious, not even your son could withstand Vegeta." Piccolo now made his way over to Gohan. "I think I'll take Gohan for a while, if you don't mind that is." He said as he smiled and laughed to himself, having an even better time now that he was witnessing the anguish in Goku's eyes.

"No! Piccolo please! I miss my son so much… Don't take him away from me!" Goku screamed, shaking the ground slightly, but nonetheless, in a vain attempt. Piccolo reached the boy, but had also taken notice to another small thing. 'Is that a bottle on that Saiyans body?' Piccolo thought to himself, eyeing the container curiously. "Just leave him alone…" Piccolo's eyes shot towards the fighter.

"I'm beginning to get tired of your talking Goku." The Namek said as he smiled, and then rushing over to where Goku was to deliver a knockout punch.

"Gohaaaaaan!" Goku yelled just before Piccolo hit him in the neck, making the fighter go completely unconscious. Piccolo savored the moment, standing there in the dead of the night, not a sound to be heard barring small chirps from the crickets.

"I love my quiet time." Piccolo said to no one, breaking into a large smile that seemed to protrude from one side of the face to the next. Picking up where he left off, Piccolo picked up the bottle off of Nappa's dead corpse. 'They were talking about unleashing 'Saibamen' on us… perhaps these are those Saibamen.' Piccolo thought, looking at the six small seeds in the bottle. It sounded ridiculous, but he decided to plant them and figure it out himself. 'Now to find a be-' The sound of a distant aircraft disrupted Piccolo's train of thought, and now only one thing occurred to him. 'I'll let these fools deal with the dead; I must train to kill Goku one day.' And soon after he grabbed Gohan, Piccolo was off once more, finding a place to train and think about the events that had just unfolded.

* * *

A few hours later, Gohan was sleeping peacefully on the ground while Piccolo contemplated his next move. 'Well, perhaps I should visit this planet Namek Vegeta was talking about. Sounds like I might find a few answers there.' The Namekian crossed his arms and closed his eyes, deep in thought. 'I heard him start to say a name… perhaps there was a being that even someone as strong as Vegeta feared. Another Saiyan?'

"No, Raditz said there was only four left in the universe…" Piccolo said aloud, pushing himself into even deeper thought. 'After he almost said the name, he said something about power, so obviously there is a being far more powerful than Vegeta. But why would he be warning me of that?' He gritted his teeth lightly, thinking hard about everything the Saiyans had said that day. 'From what I can gather, the reason that they thought the dragon balls here were created was because of me… does that mean all Namekians have the power to create dragon balls?' Piccolo tilted his head slightly and growled quietly 'So why did he come to Earth first? Was it so he could get revenge for his comrade? Or was it to finally see Goku? He knew there was a set on Namek, and yet he chose to come to Earth.' Something came into Piccolo's mind as he thought, something which he should have put together much earlier. 'Of course! The scouters also double as transmitters, so whoever this almighty person is that Vegeta was talking about might know the whereabouts of the Namekian dragon balls!' Piccolo smiled at himself, but only for a moment, as his victory was short lived. 'That means I have to get there as fast as possible to stop this person from getting the balls, otherwise he might destroy the entire galaxy…' Piccolo became very irate at this, not only would he have to take up the roll as a good guy again, but he would have to go out of his way to save the very people he despised! 'Why can't I ever get a break…' Piccolo complained, opening his eyes and looking around the area. To his great surprise, Gohan was already up and was waiting patiently in front of Piccolo, not uttering a single syllable. "How long have you been waiting there Gohan?" The boy looked to the side for a moment and replied.

"For a while, I hope I didn't startle you master." Piccolo shook his head from side to side.

"Do you want to know about the battle kid?" The Namekian asked, to which Gohan nodded.

"Did Goku show up?" Piccolo sighed, that was all Gohan could think about. Goku was always on his mind.

"Yes, but I'm the one who killed Vegeta." Gohan's eyes widened and he clenched his hands into fists as he retained the urge to fly away and meet with his father right at the moment. "Gohan, don't leave yet! First of all, he's weak and will be no challenge. And second, we may need him for something we need to do soon." Gohan raised his head to look at his master, releasing his fists.

"What are you talking about?" Gohan asked, curious as to why Piccolo left Goku alive at all.

"Vegeta said some things after you were knocked out, some things that are potentially life changing, for the both of us." He paused for a moment and remembered that Vegeta had taken off his scouter earlier, and scolding himself secretly for not grabbing it. "Gohan, wait here, I have to go grab something I forgot." Piccolo took off "And if I find you left while I was away, I won't hesitate to beat the life out of you!"

* * *

Piccolo looked out onto the battleground, hoping that the group picking Goku up had left, and had left the scouter as well. To his immediate joy, he saw that the grounds were empty, save for the body of Tien, and the small fighter Chiaotzu, who had fallen asleep crying for his fallen comrade. Piccolo landed close to where Vegeta had dropped his scouter, and tried desperately to find it; however, in his movements he woke the small fighter.

"P-piccolo? Is that you?" The small warrior asked, it was so dark that Piccolo couldn't determine what his facial expressions were. He grunted in response, still looking for the scouter that he desired. "You didn't… didn't kill Tien… did you?" Chiaotzu quizzed, obviously distraught as he started to tear up again.

"Technically no, but maybe if you help me find this scouter, I won't kill you right now!" Piccolo barked at Chiaotzu, who stayed still for a moment, obviously scared, but then started to look for it along with Piccolo in fear.

"W-what does it look like?" He asked, Piccolo sighed.

"You saw one on Nappa and Vegeta, you figure it out!" He looked around frantically, as did Chiaotzu.

"Maybe Nappa still has his on?" The small one asked.

'That sounds like an idiotic mistake that he would make, to take his scouter into battle…' Piccolo smirked.

"Gohan would have destroyed it in his battle, just keep looking before I really lose my temper." The small fighter scampered around, trying to find where the thing was, but finally, Piccolo held it in triumph. At first Chiaotzu was relieved, but then he remembered what Piccolo had done to two of his best friends and began to run away. Piccolo laughed. 'He's not even worth the effort.' And with a great burst of speed he left the scene, hoping that he would never have to see those two Saiyans again.

* * *

When he returned to Gohan, he found that the boy was sitting down, waiting patiently for Piccolo to return, and seemed to be annoyed at something. The Namekian landed a few meters away from the boy and then had an idea.

"Gohan, power up as high as you possibly can, I'm going to check your power with this." Piccolo said, lifting the scouter over his eye and placing it firmly onto his ear. Gohan nodded, stood up and began to power up, his power gaining levels that Piccolo had never seen the boy achieve, other than in his enraged state. 'How do I get this to work…' Piccolo thought as he searched for the button that the two Saiyans used when he saw them try to calculate power levels. As his finger slid across the side of the scouter, he found a button and pressed it, and as he did, a vast number of symbols appeared before him. "Damn, it's just as I thought." Piccolo said, disappointed. "You can stop now Gohan, I can't read anything on this scouter." In a grunt of frustration, Gohan powered down, secretly wanting to know what his maximum power reading was.

"Do you think we can get someone to make it readable?" Gohan asked. Piccolo glared at the boy's suggestion.

"Are you suggesting that we get help from Bulma?" Piccolo snarled, frightening the boy a great deal. However the child couldn't lie, and nodded in response to his master's question. "Hmm…" Piccolo turned around and took the scouter off and sticking it on his belt, contemplating whether he should try it or not. 'Somehow I have to get to Namek, either I can get help from Bulma, or take the ships of the two Saiyans…' However there was one variable that Piccolo had not thought of 'Kami!' He screamed in his mind, shuddering even more at the thought of needing help from his good counterpart. 'He must have some sort of craft to have gotten to earth…' But the Namekian refuted the idea of asking for help from Kami, and instead would have rather asked for the annoying one for help. "I would choose for us to use the Saiyans ship, but seeing as how I have no idea how to operate them, it looks as If we are going to need Bulma's help building a craft anyway…" Piccolo said, sighing in disappointment 'whether she decides to help us or not is completely up to the method I decide to use.' The evil one smiled at his idea, chuckling at the thought of making that blue haired woman squirm with fear.

"Will we be heading there tomorrow master?" Gohan asked, to which Piccolo nodded.

"But first, I have to see something…" He stated, turning around and pulling out a bottle with seeds from his belt. Gohan eyed it curiously, wondering what it could be. "I got this off of Nappa, I'm assuming that these are the Saibamen that he was talking about."

"You mean the ones that Vegeta said you could easily get rid of?" Gohan questioned, to which Piccolo nodded.

"I can only guess that you plant them in the ground and then put this liquid on the bottom of the container on top of the seeds." Piccolo explained, shaking the bottle slightly.

"What if they try to attack us master?" Gohan asked, wondering what his master was planning.

"Heh…" The Namek closed his eyes and laughed "If they do, then we will show them who their new master is." Piccolo opened up the top of the bottle, placed two of the seeds in the ground and then sprinkled on top of them the goo that was on the bottom of the bottle. Gohan and Piccolo watched the spot for a moment after the Namekian had backed off, and soon, results showed. The ground began to rip and tear, and finally, green showed through, with Saibamen emerging from the very earth they were planted in.

The two Saibamen that had emerged were slightly confused at first, evident by the fact that they were searching around for the two Saiyan warriors who had controlled them before, but ultimately set their sights on Gohan, determined to kill anything within their range.

"So these are Saibamen huh? Better be on your toes Gohan, I think they aim to attack you." Piccolo grinned, watching the two Saibamen clamp their claws together into a fist. "Don't kill them Gohan, just knock them around." Gohan nodded, and the Saibamen were off. Gohan blocked both of their punches with his forearms and quickly kicked the one to his right into a mountain. The other backed off and donned a very confused look, wondering how a boy could prove to be so powerful, but immediately springing into action once his ally was completely back on his feet. The two circled around Gohan, trying to intimidate him, however it was all in vain as Gohan crossed his arms and smiled at the pathetic plant warriors, who stopped their circling and went in for the kill. One kicked high while the other kicked low, but Gohan saw it coming and grabbed both of their legs at the same time, lifting them into the air and throwing them against the ground with a force so strong that they created craters in the earth.

"Gohan, that's enough, let me talk to them." Piccolo said as Gohan backed off from the fighting plants. He picked one of them up by his leg and turned him around to face the Namek. The Saibamen was clearly too exhausted to fight back, so it opened one of its eyes to look at who had picked it up. "You're masters are dead, I killed them, and I'll do the same to you if you don't follow my orders." Piccolo explained, the Saibamen opened his second eye and continued to listen "This boy and I are your new masters, do you understand?" The green plant fighter nodded his head yes. "Can you speak at all?" Asked the Namekian, to which the Saibamen shook his head no. "Damn…" Piccolo dropped the Saibamen 'this will be harder than I exp-'

"I… speak…" said the other Saibamen on the ground as he turned to his other side. Piccolo looked at the green one with a smile.

"So, are you the most intelligent of your kind?" Piccolo asked.

"I-intell-igent?" The Saibamen sounded out, wondering what exactly the word meant.

Piccolo grunted in frustration "Are you the only one who talks?"

"I only one who speak." The Saibamen answered, backing away slightly in fear of the intimidating man.

"Well then, I plan to use you for my benefit, you will work under me and this boy now, your former masters are dead. Do you understand?"

"Yes…" The Saibamen nodded "We work for strongest." Piccolo smiled, as he now had six new expendable additions to his arsenal, which he could use however he pleased.

"Good, now I want your little friend to return to seed form, I'll keep you around for a bit longer." The other Saibamen crawled into the fetal position and began to de-evolve into a small green seed, which Piccolo picked up and put back into his bottle. "Gohan, I want you to go to sleep, this Saibamen and I have much to talk about." Gohan nodded as Piccolo started to walk off, the Saibamen following behind him.

After a few minutes, the two of them were alone, and so Piccolo decided to speak.

"What is your name?" He asked, to which the Saibamen scratched his head.

"No one ever ask that before…" He looked to the ground but then remembered what the other Saibamen called him "Others call me Skriatch, which mean-"

"I don't care what it means." Piccolo barked at the Saibamen, who shot back in fear of his new master. "I need you to tell me something." Skriatch listened "Did you ever hear of a person who was far more powerful than your masters?" The Saibamen shook his head.

"They no talk to us... they not even know I talk."

"Damn… well it doesn't matter; I have a job for you." Skriatch looked up at Piccolo, curious as to what he may want for him to do. "Watch over Gohan, the boy I mean, while I head off to do some things. If I come back and he's not ok when I get here, you and the rest of the Saibamen will be killed."

"Yes sir, me will watch boy while you away." Piccolo smiled, these new Saibamen would prove to be most useful tools if they were always this obedient.

"And don't even think about running. If you do, I will find you, and I will kill you." Piccolo warned, blasting off towards West City.

* * *

**What does Piccolo plan to do with Bulma? And what lies in store for Goku and his allies now that Piccolo has more minions at his disposal? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	12. Chapter 12: Preparation

**Chapter 12: Preparation**

Sleeping peacefully in her bed was Mrs. Brief, alone, no doubt because her husband was working on some sort of project. Piccolo floated patiently, observing the surrounding area to make sure that he would alert no one to what he was about to do, and sure enough, there was not a person in sight. Inching closer to the window, he precisely and carefully used a ki beam from his finger to make a hole in the glass big enough for himself to fit through. Making nary a peep, he finished the circular motion, grabbed the glass with the utmost care, incinerating it in his hands to avoid any unnecessary noise, smiling slightly at the fact that he had seemed to be nearly flawless in his technique. Next he would fly ever so quietly into the room, and landed next to the bed where she lay.

'Nothing personal, it's just business.' Piccolo thought, smirking, he grabbed the blonde woman by the neck of her silk nightgown. As soon as Piccolo raised her up, she awoke and screamed at the sight of Piccolo, whom she knew to be a vicious and cold blooded killer.

"Shut up woman, I won't hurt you if you stay quiet and do as I say." Piccolo growled at Mrs. Brief, to which she nodded and covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming once more. "Good, now let's have a visit with your husband shall we?" Piccolo walked through the hallway of the capsule corp. building, having Mrs. Brief be his guide to the lab. Eventually they made it, and Dr. Brief was working on some sort of flying machine when Piccolo interrupted him. "Hello doctor, I have a business offer to discuss." The Namekian said, smiling and holding the woman Mrs. Brief by the back of her shirt.

"I'm busy at the moment, need to finish working on this now or I'll just never be able to." Said the old man, seeming to calculate something and starting to tinker with the insides of the car.

"I think that you'll find my offer is of great urgency." A frustrated Piccolo explained, throwing Mrs. Brief on the ground, causing her to scream in pain. Dr. Brief, hearing the cries of his wife, turned around and was slack jawed to find that the menace known as Piccolo was standing right in front of him.

"W-what do you want…"Dr. Brief spat out.

"I want you to make me a ship Doctor, one that will get me to a planet known as Namek."

"N-namek? I don't even know where that is; much less have the ability to create a space worthy ship to take you there!" He said, bumbling and trembling, worrying for the safety of his wife.

"There are beings who came here from a planet far away. If I get you their ships, could you use parts from them to make a vessel capable of high speed interstellar travel?" Piccolo asked, eyeing Mrs. Brief to make sure she didn't try to escape.

"Perhaps…" Dr. Brief thought for a moment. "Yes, I could do such a thing, and I will if you let my wife g-"

"Dad? Mom? What's going on?" Bulma said, walking into the room, eyes red from crying over seeing Yamcha's horrible demise. However, as soon as she saw Piccolo, her sadness turned into blind rage. "Piccolo you monster! How could you kill Yamcha!" She screamed, starting to run at him, however the Namek turned around and grabbed the woman's mother, holding her up, placing his open palm in front of her face.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, your mother might not like it too much." A smiling Piccolo explained, Mrs. Brief trying to contain a scream of sheer terror. Bulma stopped in her tracks and started to cry, looking at the ground as tears streamed off of her face onto the ground.

"You… you bastard…" She said quietly. Piccolo turned back around towards Dr. Brief, who was also looking at the ground.

"Let me put it simply to you two, unless I can get to the planet Namek in a few days, this entire universe may be in grave peril." He said as he dropped the woman he was holding, causing her even greater pain. Her husband flinched at the sight.

"Why on earth should I believe that? You've been killing innocent people for a long time now, why do you care if the universe is in peril?" Dr. Brief asked, to which Piccolo rolled his eyes.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I need to save this world. It belongs to me, and I won't have anyone trying to destroy it anytime soon, which is what will happen if I let this powerful being take the Dragon Balls." Both Bulma and Dr. Brief looked slightly confused.

"Aren't there only dragon balls here on earth?" Dr. Brief questioned.

"No, I have learned that there is a race of people just like myself on a distant planet called Namek, and it's more than likely that they also have a set on their planet." Dr. Brief sighed, knowing that Piccolo truly was the only hope if he was telling the truth.

"Fine, I'll collect the two Saiyans ships and begin work on the ship to take you to Namek immediately." Piccolo smiled as Bulma gasped.

"Father, you can't believe him! He's evil!" Bulma shouted.

"I have no choice…" Dr. Brief said "he has your mother Bulma, and I don't think he will let her go until I make this ship of his."

"Oh, don't think that I'm going to let her go once you finish, I'm going to take her to Namek with me." Piccolo chuckled "to make sure you don't rig it to explode in space, or some other nonsense." All three of the Brief gasped, but Piccolo wasn't done with his demands. "Oh yes, and I'll also need that dragon radar that you are all so fond of." Dr. Brief looked around for a moment, thinking of where he would have put it last.

"Bulma, where did you take it last time you used it?" Dr. Brief asked, to which Bulma remained silent.

"I won't hesitate to kill your mother, now tell him where it is!" Piccolo barked, grabbing hold of Mrs. Brief shirt again, but not picking her back up.

"It's… it's in the cabinet by the door…" Bulma said, sniffling as her father walked over to open the cabinet.

"I also want some sort of mechanism to help me train, something I can use on the vessel, anything to make me stronger." Piccolo demanded. Dr. Brief took the radar out of the cabinet and started walking towards Piccolo. "Oh yes, and how long do you think this will take?" Dr. Brief stopped in his tracks and thought to himself, stoking his chin.

"I suppose it will take about a week if I work quickly enough." Piccolo shook his head in disappointment.

"Make it 3 days, I don't care how you do it, just get it done. If not, I don't think I have to explain to you what will happen to your wife." He was about to grab his hostage but stopped "I almost forgot, this is from Gohan, make it readable." The Namekian threw the scouter at Dr. Brief, who caught it clumsily. Piccolo grabbed Mrs. Brief around the waist and held threw her over his shoulder as he made his way out of the building, with Dr. Brief and Bulma shouting protests. However, Piccolo would hear none of it, and he blasted off with his hostage. "I'll be back in three days for the ship, radar, and the scouter!" He shouted, zooming away from the scene.

All throughout the ride, Mrs. Brief was screaming, however, Piccolo was too deep in thought to notice. 'I need to go through some intensive training in the three days I have here on earth… what should I do?' At first he just thought of normal training, but would that really do? 'No, I need to go through a lot in just a short time if I'm ever to become as strong as Vegeta was. I have to work twice as hard in half the time…' the idea donned on him, something that was so obvious, and yet he hadn't even thought of it until now. 'I'll have to deal with that fool Kami, but at least it will be worth it.' Piccolo increased his speed, anxious to get started on his training. It took a few hours, and by that time, Mrs. Brief had fallen asleep. The sun rose in the sky, signifying the start of a new day.

Piccolo touched down near the boy, still sleeping, and he placed the woman next to him. He saw Skriatch nod his head.

"I have done good?" The Saibamen asked, awaiting praise for his deeds.

"Yeah sure, it's not like it was a hard job anyway." Piccolo chuckled as the Saibamen looked down in disappointment. "Tell me, do you need some kind of nutrients to live?"

"Water, that it." He said, with Piccolo looking towards the sun to think.

"Gohan and I will be in intense training for a day, you will come with us. Perhaps I'll bring along a few more of you, so that we may combat even more powerful opponents. With a year in the time chamber, maybe we'll have a chance." Skriatch looked confused.

"You say we gone a day, then say we gone a year?" Piccolo looked back.

"It's because of a different dimension. Where we will train, one day equals one year, which means that we will be able to get a year's worth of training done in one day." Piccolo said, not wanting to explain it twice when Gohan awoke. "Just wait until Gohan wakes up, I'll tell you about it then." Skriatch nodded. "I wonder… Can you even increase your powers?" Piccolo asked, Skriatch had to think for a moment.

"Me think so… but old masters never train us, we only fight." Piccolo sighed and looked at Gohan, thinking of just waking him up.

"Get him concious, we need to go as soon as possible." The Saibamen began to rock the boy back and forth, causing him to open his eyes and look up to his master.

"Hello master." Gohan said as he rose to his feet "What will be doing today?" Piccolo looked at the two beings in front of him and smiled.

"We will be in training for a day; however, it will be in a different dimension, so we will actually be training for a year." Gohan rubbed the back of his head in confusion. "All you need to know, Gohan, is that we have another round of rigorous training ahead before we leave Earth for Namek, and that the place we are going has a gravity ten times that of earth." Skriatch doubled back in fear.

"M-me not so sure me can handle…"

"We won't know until we try." Piccolo explained, as Gohan finally noticed the woman who was sleeping on the ground.

"Who is this lady, master?" Gohan asked, looking first at the woman, but then back to Piccolo.

"It is the mother of Bulma, I convinced the Briefs to build a ship to get us to another planet Gohan. We will be leaving in three days." The boy's eyes shot open in both wonder and excitement. He had always wanted to go to space. However, his hardened face came back to him, and he looked stoic once more. "We need to get to Kami's lookout as soon as possible, let's go." Piccolo said as he grabbed Mrs. Brief once more, taking to the sky along with Gohan and Skriatch.

"Isn't Kami the one you hate master?" Gohan yelled, to which Piccolo nodded.

"He is my 'Good' half. I wouldn't be dealing with him unless it was absolutely necessary." Piccolo's eye twitched at the thought of talking with the old fool.

"How powerful is he, master?" Gohan asked.

"Not very, don't worry about it boy."

* * *

They continued for a while, but finally made it, and landed on the white tiles of the lookout. When Kami and Mr. Popo saw Piccolo, the old guardian shook his head in disappointment.

"So you've come, Piccolo. I can't say that I'm grateful to see you." Kami told the Namekian, who growled quietly.

"Can me kill? Me really want to kill." Skriatch said, grinning and taking his claws out.

"Absolutely not, if the old man dies, I die with him." Piccolo explained, causing Skriatch to back down. "It's not like I want to be here!" Piccolo yelled to Kami "But I need to use the hyperbolic time chamber, to train for an expedition to another planet." Kami looked very confused by this, but also knew why he must let Piccolo go, as the two almost shared the same thoughts.

"I can't stop you, go ahead…" Kami sighed as the three of the ones who arrived began walking towards the garden. "Where are you going, the chamber is over this way." Kami said, pointing towards the building.

"Shut up Kami, I have a few things I need to plant before I start training." Piccolo got the bottle out and planted the five Saibamen, pouring liquid on them. Soon, the five of them sprouted out of the ground, destroying most of the garden. Mr. Popo gasped and seemed as if he were about to cry.

All of the Saibamen beside Skriatch and the one who had fought Gohan the night before were confused, looking around just as the ones from the night before had to try and find their masters, but to no avail.

"Tell them, Skriatch." Piccolo ordered. The smart Saibamen began to speak in some sort of foreign tongue that no one was able to decipher at all; however, all of the Saibamen began to bow before the presence of their new master. Piccolo grinned; he now had a small army at his command. "Kami, this woman will stay here with you, along with three of these Saibamen." Piccolo said, placing the woman down by the destroyed garden. He then turned to face his Saibamen. "You and you, make sure that Kami or Mr. Popo doesn't try to take the woman back home." The two Saibamen nodded "and under no circumstances should you kill Kami." They nodded once more. "And you." Piccolo pointed towards another Saibamen "you guard the entrance to the chamber, make sure no one gets in or out, and also make sure that the entrance is not destroyed." He nodded as well. "The rest of you will train with me in the chamber, come."

The Saibamen and Gohan followed Piccolo through the winding corridors of Kami's palace, finally leading to a giant door that lead to what was called the "hyperbolic time chamber."

"This it?" Skriatch asked, Piccolo nodded.

"Inside here is a dimension different to our own. Once we head in, we won't be coming out for a year." Piccolo explained "only a day will pass out here however."

"How will we survive in here for a whole year?" Gohan asked.

"If I remember correctly, there will be food enough to last two people an entire year, and since the Saibamen and I need only water to survive, I think you'll be fine." Piccolo said as he reached his hand out and grasped the handle of the door. "Everyone better be ready, our training begins now." He opened the door, and everyone stepped into the blindingly light room for an entire year's worth of training.

* * *

**How will Gohan and Piccolo's training fare? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	13. Chapter 13: The Chamber

**Chapter 13: The Chamber**

As the training in the chamber came around to its halfway point, Piccolo and Gohan had received a large power boost, most likely doubling what they had before. The Saibamen on the other hand, rose very slowly, only gaining a small amount of power. At first, Piccolo was frustrated by their lack of gaining potential, but eventually accepted it as natural for Saibamen, seeing as how they weren't really made to gain power. The time in the white room, which would have driven any man insane, had relatively little effect on Gohan and Piccolo, as they had already felt this way before whilst training in the mountains. The Saibamen were just happy to be out and about for so long.

Although Piccolo hated to admit it, no matter how hard he trained, Gohan would always take huge steps ahead of him whenever they trained together, and now their power was almost completely equal. However, this did not fear the Namekian anymore, as he had come to learn that the boy cared far too deeply to betray his master, and Piccolo decided that it might not be that bad to be weaker than his pupil, after all, what Piccolo didn't have in power he made up for with raw experience. Most of the time, while Piccolo and Gohan were sparring, Gohan made some small judgmental error that allowed Piccolo to win the match. On a scarce number of times, however Gohan actually surpassed the Namek. Despite all of this, Gohan still needed training, and Piccolo would give him what he needed until Gohan had absolutely nothing left to learn.

The Saibamen were a tricky bunch, and Piccolo had bestowed the right of training them to Gohan, who Piccolo thought might actually learn a thing or two himself by teaching these little green monsters. He did fairly well, but because of their lack of gaining power, Piccolo had almost given up on them completely. But now he would step into the ring to train the Saibamen, something that they all feared, as did Gohan.

Gohan had become attached to the three Saibamen, something which Piccolo warned him of, saying that "these Saibamen are tools of my army, to be used when and where I need them. If one dies, than it will be of no concern to us." However, Gohan ignored his master's idea and took it upon himself to make sure that no mortal harm we're to come to these Saibamen. One he had taken particular interest in was one who Skriatch had called "Trokar" who Piccolo had differentiated from the other two Saibamen by etching a triangle onto his forehead with a ki beam. Trokar seemed to be the less evil of the three Saibamen, and showed Gohan a great amount of commitment and dedication when it came to his training, out of the three little aliens that had gone with them into the time chamber, Trokar was definitely the one who had advanced most in his training.

This was an obvious reason for Gohan's fears to come about, thinking that the now super powerful Piccolo might accidentally kill one of them in intensive training.

"Master!" Gohan Protested as Piccolo was about to start the lesson. "You can't go too hard on them, you might kill one!" Piccolo did not turn around to face his apprentice, who was behind him, still urging for the lives of the three Saibamen.

"Gohan, I will show them the same compassion I showed you when I first trained you, and if they die that means that they were not worthy of my training." The Namek said in a cold voice, sending chills down the boy's spine.

"B-but…"

"That's enough out of you Gohan, say anything else against this and I'll consider you a traitor." Gohan, knowing that his master truly meant well with his training of the Saibamen, backed down.

"Yes master."

"Now go begin your meditation, when I'm done training these three I will be back to spar with you." Gohan nodded, despite the fact that his master couldn't see him, and he went out into the void to meditate.

Piccolo stood in front of the Saibamen, arms crossed with a sneer across his face. The three troops were lined up from strongest to weakest, strongest being Trokar, followed by Skriatch, and then the "clown" of the trio, "Krayde" who Piccolo had distinguished from the others by etching an X onto his forehead with ki. Gohan may have tolerated Krayde's antics, but if there was one person who would not take it, it was Piccolo.

"You will all be trained by me now, do you understand?" The three of them nodded their heads "and I am not like Gohan at all, I am far more vicious than he will ever be." Piccolo began pacing in front of the three Saibamen "I am ruthless, and if I ever see any of you disobey my orders, I will kill you." He said as he stopped in front of Krayde, who was smiling the whole time. "Do you think I'm joking Krayde?" The Namek asked turning and facing the unruly Saibamen, whose grin faded quickly.

"Ah" Krayde growled as he shook his head. Piccolo began to pace once more, not saying a word, but assessing their power. 'The one called 'Trokar' seems to be a good trainee…' Piccolo thought to himself, stopping mid stride to look at the most powerful of the Saibamen.

"Tell me Trokar, do you believe you are powerful?" The Namekian asked, to which Trokar nodded in agreement. Piccolo grew a wide grin in response. "Wrong answer." Piccolo made a swift movement forward and slammed the back of his hand across Trokar's face, sending him flying and crashing into the void. Piccolo turned to look at the Saibamen, who had recovered rather quickly and had an angered look upon his face. "You want to hurt me don't you; you want to make me suffer right?" The twisted demon asked, chuckling all the while "than come GET ME!" He yelled as he rushed at the Saibamen, who took a defensive stance as Piccolo was about to slam his elbow into Trokar's face. By some miracle, the Saibamen managed to block the Nameks attack, which Piccolo was completely astonished and angered by, the Namekian made another swift move and kicked Trokar in the side, sending him flying to the left at an amazing speed and crashing once more into the white floor of the room. Piccolo was once again happy that no one could defeat him, and he straightened his posture along with crossing his arms to gain his signature 'tough as nails' look.

"Who wants to test my strength next?" Piccolo asked sarcastically, looking over at the two Saibamen, Krayde stepping back in fear while Skriatch looked in horror. "As you can see, no matter how powerful you think you are, you are still no match f-" A kick to the side sent Piccolo flying a few feet before he regained his balance, looking with complete rage at Trokar, whose mouth was trickling purple blood as he smiled.

"No… give… up…" Trokar said, seeming to struggle with remembering the right words to say "Gohan, me no… give up." Upon hearing these words, Piccolo's rage quickly quelled, the Saibamen somehow reminding him of his pupil, however, this was short lived, and Piccolo was now back in teacher mode.

"Trokar, you have proven that you are slightly powerful." Piccolo admitted "But don't let it get to your head, your old master did that, and he is dead now." The Namekian said, smiling slightly at his accomplishment. The Saibamen stood in place however, not moving, not saying another word, just standing still. What little Patients Piccolo had at the moment was wearing thin. "Get back in line, before I kill you." He said very coolly, the stubborn Saibamen finally complied and walked back to the other two of his kind.

* * *

Gohan sat out in the cold intensity of the void, using all of his power to attempt to gain complete tranquility in the extreme environment, however, things in his mind refused to let go of their grip on the boy.

'What am I doing here?' He asked himself, wondering why on earth that Gohan would be following this murdering psychopath at all. This train of thought was broken by Gohan, who still thought of Piccolo as a sort of father figure to him.

'He took me in when my father abandoned me, he cares about me…' Gohan reasoned to himself.

'Then why does he treat you so horribly?' The dark side of Gohan's mind retorted.

'He has reasons; I've become strong because of his training!' Gohan argued with himself, but the dark half of him was not yet finished.

'Then kill him Gohan, become not only the king of earth, but the ruler of the galaxy!'

'No! I must help my master!'

'Gohan, don't try to fight me, let me in, I can give you what you really want.' Gohan paused for a moment.

'What… what do…'

'Power Gohan, I will give you power beyond your wildest dreams, power enough to annihilate Piccolo.' Gohan may have been able to subdue the evil in him for some time now, but it was inevitable that it would be released.

'No… go away! I don't need you!' Gohan screamed in his mind, falling to the ground and grabbing his head in frustration.

'Don't shut me out again you brat! You know you want to use me!'

'No! I work for my master and my master **only**!' Gohan let out an agonizing scream, and with that, the evil half of his mind had left, to come back and taunt the boy at a later date. The half breed slowly opened his eyes to see that he was in a hospital, appearing to be sleeping at the side of someone in the hospitals bed. At first, his vision was blurry, and he couldn't see anything. The boy fixated his gaze onto the man in the bed, but all he could make out was the black hair and blue hospital garb that he wore.

"G... ning… un" Gohan heard, wondering what on earth the man was trying to tell him. Gohan attempted to talk, but nothing came out, but soon his vision started to come back. He looked back around him to find that there was someone who looked like Krillin and Bulma behind him. 'That's not right… Krillin's dead.' Thought Gohan as he looked back towards the man on the hospital bed.

Gohan's eyes shot open when he found out that he was in the very same room as the man who he despised so much, and quickly backed away.

"What's wrong Gohan?" Goku asked the child, who was both extremely confused and angry all at the same time.

" W-where am I!" Gohan shouted "Where's master!" The child twisted around to see that both Krillin and Bulma both looked very confused at the boy's question, as was Goku.

"Who are you talking about Gohan?" Krillin asked, but the boy was looking about frantically, trying to find the Namek. However, his confusion turned to anger as he faced Goku, whom he was about to blame for his predicament.

"You took me away from Piccolo, didn't you Goku!" Gohan said as he powered up, but he noticed that he was significantly weaker than he was before.

"Gohan, calm down! I know you miss Piccolo, but he's training with King Kai now!" Goku yelled, which only confused Gohan even more than he already was.

"N-no… Piccolo killed Vegeta! He told me himself! What's going on?" Gohan yelled as he looked around the room to look at the others, who were looking at the floor. No one spoke for a while, and the child looked back at Goku, who was also expressing sorrow, looking out the window. "Don't even try to act like that you bastard…" Gohan said under his breath, which his father heard and was appalled at.

"Gohan! Don't say such things!" Goku scolded, which Gohan took offense to.

"No, I'll kill you now for what you've put me through! And to top it off, you took me away from the only person I've ever cared about!" Gohan yelled as he powered up to his maximum, which he noticed once again was dramatically lower than what it should have been. "What's going on? I'm not as powerful as I used to be!" The boy screamed as the onlookers donned an expression of horror on their faces, not knowing where these new waves of emotion were coming from.

"Gohan!" Screamed Goku, seemingly trying to snap him out of a trance. "Gohan!" he screamed once again, his voice getting deeper and scratchier. "Gohan!" he shouted one last time, sounding completely like Piccolo as the boys vision faded once more, coming back to reality in front of his master.

"M-master, is that you?" Gohan asked, opening his eyes to find that he was lying on the cold, white ground inside of the hyperbolic time chamber. The green one was relieved that his pupil was alright, wondering why he was shouting Goku's name whilst he was sleeping.

"Yes, it's me kid, what the hell were you dreaming about?" Piccolo asked the child, who relayed the scenario in his mind. 'It wasn't a dream…' thought the child, who could have sworn that the entire experience was completely real. The boy rose to his feet and answered the Namekian.

"Master, I was in an alternate universe…" Piccolo was confused by this statement, wondering if Gohan had gone insane.

"It was a dream Gohan, nothing else." Piccolo explained firmly, not showing any hint of compassion.

"But master! It felt so real… Krillin was alive, and Goku was-" Piccolo hit the child with a firm slap to the face, sending him crashing to the ground a few feet away.

"That's enough Gohan!" Piccolo yelled, angered by the boy's mentioning of Goku "get back to training! We only have a few more months left." The boy got back onto his feet and nodded to his master, and the two started their intense training session.

* * *

As the months trudged on, everything that Piccolo expected to happen, happened. Gohan became a great fighter with an astonishing power, and the Saibamen had become about as powerful as Gohan was when the boy had faced Nappa, but one thing weighed on the mind of the Namekian as the boy was asleep, and while the Saibamen were out training.

The Namekian was concerned about what the boy had seen the day that he passed out in the room, and why the child was so concerned about Goku. 'A different universe…' Pondered the green one, leaning against one of the rooms hour glasses. 'An alternate one? What the hell was he talking about…' Piccolo asked himself, regretting his decision to try and make Gohan forget. 'He seemed to think that this was a universe that would have come about if certain events did not happen the way that they were supposed to.' Gathered the Namekian, who remembered the child saying Goku's name in anger. 'If only I could know what he was thinking that day, was he truly in an alternate universe? Or was it only a dream…' The Namekian placed his hand on his forehead, attempting to clear his mind to find an answer. 'Perhaps it was a vision of the future...' However, Piccolo dismissed the notion, seeing as how Krillin was dead and the boy had told the Namek that the monk was in his vision. 'A vision of… of something that would have happened at that very moment in time if something in our history were to have played out differently?' This idea sounded completely ludicrous to Piccolo, although it made the most sense besides saying that it was only a silly dream.

The Namekian was completely torn by this idea, it was borderline insane to think this way, but what other choice was there to choose from? 'If it was a vision like that, then how did Gohan gain such powers?' Piccolo had become so frustrated that he nearly destroyed the hourglass behind him, but restrained himself at the last second, knowing that would be a horrible idea. 'It doesn't matter, if it happens again, then I'll know for sure whether it was just a dream or if Gohan was being completely honest.' And with that thought, Piccolo made his way into the void, to find the Saibamen and train with them.

* * *

"Master Piccolo, how much time do we have left." Asked Gohan, nearing the end of their training in the time chamber. Piccolo looked over at the hourglass which told how much time was left in the room, and it seemed that almost all of the sand was gone besides a very small amount.

"I would say that we have only a few more hours before we have to leave…" Piccolo stated, shifting his gaze to the door of the time chamber.

"The time seemed to pass so quickly master…" Gohan said, slightly disappointed that he couldn't get stronger in the year that he had been there. Piccolo smirked at his pupil, who by now had surpassed Piccolo in strength by a small margin.

"Gohan, you have trained well here, and I am proud of you kid. But now is the time for another test." Piccolo stated as his smile vanished. Gohan looked with a hint of concern at his master, who averted his gaze to the three Saibamen in the void training.

"What is it master?" Gohan asked.

"Saibamen! Front and center!" Piccolo yelled at the three of them, who quicky stopped what they were doing and formed a line right in front of Piccolo. "Skriatch, you have done well, you may leave this chamber." Piccolo said to the smartest of the Saibamen, who bowed his head and walked to the door of the room. "Trokar, you have become far more powerful than the other two Saibamen, and you are now free to leave the chamber as well." Trokar bowed before his master and left the room, sparing a small, appreciative smile towards Gohan before leaving. The last Saibamen in the room was still standing in attention, smiling and almost chuckling as he knew that he was about to be dismissed into the real world. "Krayde, you have done the worst out of all three of the Saibamen, and you will suffer for that." Both the Saibamen and Gohan's eyes became wide with horror as they heard what Piccolo had to say.

"M-master, please don't make me…"

"Yes Gohan, this is your next test, destroy this Saibamen and prove your unwavering loyalty to me." Piccolo said with a smirk. Gohan looked towards Krayde, who was expressing a look of sheer terror, but Gohan had to obey his master.

"I'm sorry Krayde… but my loyalty to my master is infinite." Gohan claimed as he blasted off towards the Saibamen, who had no time to dodge and was punched in the face by the boy. Krayde was sent flying backwards, and refused to get up, knowing that no matter what he did, he was absolutely no match for his teacher. Gohan walked slowly out to the Saibamen, and as he reached him, Gohan was shocked to find that his punch had damaged Krayde so much that his left eye had been completely blackened and was unable to open, and his mouth was trickling with blood. Even more horrifying to the child was that he had such a look of desperateness and sadness in his eyes, something that Gohan had seen many times before whilst he killed the innocents of the world, but never before had he felt so terrible at what he was about to do.

"Krayde…" Gohan said in a horse whisper, looking down as Piccolo landed next to the boy.

"Finish it Gohan, look at how pathetic he is!" Piccolo smiled as he remembered when he forced Gohan to kill the innocent man so long ago. The boy raised his hand up towards Krayde, looking away as he started to tear up. Piccolo smiled evilly as the boy charged up a small ball of ki, enough to destroy the weak and pathetic Saibamen in front of him, however, much to Piccolo's chagrin, the ball faded, and Gohan landed on his knees in shame.

"I-I can't do it Piccolo… I care too much about him…" Gohan explained, tears streaming down his face. Piccolo's smile had disappeared, replaced by a look of disappointment.

"Then you have failed me Gohan." Piccolo said as he kicked the boy across the room, making him land on his face a few meters away. Gohan looked up slightly and saw that Piccolo was about to finish the Saibamen off.

"No master! Don't!" But it was too late; Piccolo incinerated the Saibamen and started to walk towards the door to the hyperbolic time chamber. Gohan quickly caught up to him and knelt to the floor, completely torn by whether what he did was right or wrong. "Wait master, I… I'm sorry!" Gohan shouted, making Piccolo stop. "I… I will now make an oath to you…" Piccolo tilted his head slightly, intrigued by the boy's claim. "From here on out, I, Gohan, will never falter in my duty to you, my master." Piccolo smirked as Gohan continued "I am your humble servant, and never again will I fail you…" As Gohan finished, Piccolo couldn't help but laugh.

"Gohan, I am evil, oaths mean nothing to me." Explained the Namek, confusing his pupil "were I to give my word to anyone that I would follow them to the ends of time, I would be lying through my teeth." Piccolo then walked towards the door to the real world whilst parting one last bit of wisdom to the child. "It is through action alone that one shows who their allegiance is to, and nothing else." Piccolo left Gohan in the room, alone and ashamed at what he had done, knowing now that he had to convince Piccolo of his loyalty to him one way or the other. The boy thought for a moment, but his mind was overcome with thoughts of darkness, which the boy almost let in, but he held fast in the face of it.

"M-mother…" Gohan said quietly, making his way out off the room, finally knowing the only way to show his loyalty to his master once more.

* * *

**What is Gohan planning to do? ****Will Piccolo finally have Gohan fully in his grasp? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	14. Chapter 14: Lost Virtue

**Chapter 14: Lost Virtue**

Gohan stepped out of the chamber, right behind Piccolo. The Namekian said nothing to him as he ran down the hall, knowing what the child was trying to do. He was going to try and prove his loyalty.

"Good luck kid, there isn't much you can do." Piccolo said quietly to himself, turning his attention to the three Saibamen outside of the door.

"Where Krayde?" Skriatch asked, which Piccolo dismissed by staying completely silent.

"You, the one who's been guarding the door." Piccolo said as he pointed towards the unfamiliar of the two Saibamen "what is his name Skriatch?" asked the Namekian.

"We call him…" The smart Saibamen waited for the new one to tell him his name, which he did "Lod." Skriatch said finally. Piccolo motioned his hand to signal Lod to come to the Nameks side, which he quickly complied to. He was met with a knee to the face, which did not knock him out, but immobilized him momentarily, giving Piccolo a chance to mark him without squirming.

"I'll make this one painful and long, I'm rather frustrated today." Piccolo smirked as he blasted a ki beam onto the beings forehead, causing it to squeal in pain. He motioned his hand around in a slow fashion, seeming to get a great deal of pleasure out of the torture of such a helpless being, and finally finished his figure eight onto the Saibamen's head. He let go of the poor alien, which promptly fell to the ground out of pain. "I miss torturing those idiot humans." Piccolo said as he smiled, making his way out to the front of the lookout.

Gohan had never thought that he would ever try this in his wildest dreams, but he knew that he would have to do something drastic if he were to gain Piccolo's trust once more. The boy ran out of the corridor and into the bright light, which phased him for a moment, but his eyes quickly re adjusted as he saw Mr. Popo, Mrs. Briefs and one of the Saibamen seeming to tend to a garden. He only spared a quick glance to the three of them before he took off into the sky, racing towards his former home.

'What am I thinking… I can't hurt my mother!' Thought Gohan, not stopping his speed for a moment

'No, she isn't your mother anymore, Piccolo is the only one you need.' The boy was obviously conflicted by his predicament, but nevertheless, continued his chase towards his home.

'But she has done no wrong! She is innocent!' The compassionate side of Gohan complained.

'I have failed in my duty to Piccolo, and this is the only way to do it…' He assured himself, however, he was completely unsure of how he would be able to bring himself to do what he thought was necessary. 'It doesn't matter; I will finish what I started…' Gohan picked up speed as he made his way back to his home.

* * *

Piccolo stepped out of the corridor to be greeted by one of the Saibamen he left to guard Mrs. Briefs, as he casually bowed before his master. The creature was ignored as the Namekian walked past him and made his way over to Mr. Popo and Mrs. Briefs. The two of them gave a shrill cry when they saw Piccolo heading for them, but it was too late to react, as there was nowhere to hide on the lookout.

"Get out of my way genie." Piccolo threatened, as Mr. Popo had put up his hands in defense of Bulma's mother.

"No, she doesn't deserve this tre-" A hard noise was made as the back of Piccolo's hand made contact with Mr. Popo's face, sending him flying over the edge of the lookout and falling to his "inevitable" death. Mrs. Briefs was horrified at this, and slapped Piccolo across the face, to no harm of course.

"You terrible person! Mr. Popo was so kind to me!" Mrs. Briefs shouted at the Namekian, who smiled as he got back into good posture.

"He's not dead, he has a magic carpet." Piccolo explained, crossing his arms "and besides, we have something to discuss." The chuckle that came out of Piccolo's mouth made Mrs. Briefs eyes open widely out of fear.

* * *

Gohan was astonished by his speed, he had made it to his home in nearly four times the speed he would have before his training in the time chamber, but now was not the time for compliments of himself, he had something he needed to do.

The familiar air surrounded his former home, and memories of early childhood came rushing back at him, but the boy steeled his emotions, and blocked out the feeling of love that he once held dear for his beautiful mountain home.

Gohan made his way up to the house, passing flowers and trees that he used to play with before, in what seemed to be a different life altogether. He would not be distracted however, and continued towards his old home, which eclipsed the now setting sun.

Chi-Chi sat in an empty kitchen, crying her eyes out for her long lost son, and for her critically injured husband. Her life was in shambles, and she would never be able to get it back.

A small shiver was sent down her spine, and she quickly took a glance out her window to see Gohan, a seldom stare on his face. For a moment, and a moment only, Chi-Chi's face lit up, only to be met by logic.

"It's another hallucination…" Chi-Chi told herself, placing her head back onto the table and crying even harder now that she missed her dear son so badly.

A knock on the door made her jump, and she quickly wiped the tears off of her face as she went to answer it.

Standing at the foot of the door was no other than her son, Gohan.

Chi-Chi was speechless for a moment, doubling back in sheer excitement and happiness.

"G-gohan? I-is that you son?" Chi-Chi asked to the boy, who looked down as he nodded.

"It's me." Gohan said.

"Oh thank goodness you're ok!" Chi-Chi screeched as she knelt down to hug him. "Oh you've grown up so much! And your hair, it's so long! We need to get it cu-"

"Mother, I need you to come with me." Gohan interrupted, causing Chi-Chi to let go of her death grip on the child and look at his face.

"Where in the world could you n-"

"I have to take you to Kami's lookout." Gohan interrupted his mother once again, which angered her slightly.

"Now see here Gohan! Just because you haven't been here for a whole year doesn't mean you can just talk to me that way!" Chi-Chi scolded, however, Gohan ignored her. Instead, he grabbed her wrist and began to fly away. "Put me down Gohan! I'm no-"

"Shut up mother." Gohan said, in a dark tone of voice, scaring Chi-Chi a great deal.

"G-gohan…" Chi-Chi said softly, wondering why her child had become so hostile. "It was that demon Piccolo, wasn't it!" Gohan said nothing, and instead flew towards his destination in total silence. "Answer me Gohan! Did he try to warp your mind?" The boy gritted his teeth "Oh! When your father gets out of the hospital he'll teach that Piccolo a thing or two!" Gohan had heard enough, it was one thing if she didn't like how he was acting, it was a whole different thing that she continued to insult his master.

"I said shut _**up**_!" Gohan screamed at Chi-Chi, the color of her face turning completely pale. The boy had stopped flying, and quickly raced to the ground. He released his grip on his mother on his way to land, causing her to drop a few feet as Gohan landed next to her. Chi-Chi screamed in pain as she hit the floor, this did not faze Gohan however. "Don't ever talk about him that way again mother, he was the one who raised me to be powerful, he took me in when Goku thought I was weak!" A tear formed on Chi-Chi's face as she looked up towards her enraged son.

"B-but Gohan, your father misses you s-"

"Enough of your lies!" Gohan yelled, shaking the earth around them "Goku is an awful man! He wouldn't even believe in his own son!" The boy's hands curled up into fists as his rage began to grow even wilder.

"Gohan he loves you!"

"He never loved me mom! He was always too preoccupied getting stronger to even notice my potential!" A slight trickle of blood appeared on Gohan's right hand, which he clamped so tightly that he was beginning to damage himself.

"Gohan please! Listen to your heart!" Chi-Chi reasoned, but Gohan was far beyond that.

"A true warrior thinks with his mind, not his heart!" He screamed, remembering the teachings of his master.

"Then you have been lost by that evil, horrible demon Piccolo!" Chi-Chi cried, tears streaming down her face.

"I said don't talk about him that way!" Gohan roared, using all of his power to slam his elbow right into his mothers face. She slid across the grassy landscape, blood staining the green pastures before her, and finally, she stopped. Gohan looked in terror, it seemed that he had put so much force into his attack that he had coved in his mothers face, which was now looking like something from a horror movie. Her face was totally unrecognizable, and her brains were showing through her completely destroyed facial area, which disturbed Gohan, making him want to throw up. The boy stepped back in shame and fear.

"Wh-what have I…" He ran over to his mothers corpse, dropped to his knees and cried, cried like he had never done before. "I'm so sorry mother… I didn't mean to…" Gohan said as he rested his face on the front of his mothers dress. Blood stained his face as he wept, and he stayed there for what seemed to be an eternity.

* * *

"Th-that's not fair! Leave her out of this!" Mrs. Briefs screamed at Piccolo, who crossed his arms and smiled.

"It's absolutely necessary, how could I pilot the ship otherwise?" He asked, to which Mrs. Briefs did not know the answer to.

"M-maybe my husband could make a manual for you…" She tried to reason, but she wouldn't get through to the Namekian at all.

"I'm not going to take the time to read a manual when I could be training." Piccolo explained "I need her, there is no negotiation." Mrs. Briefs started to tear up, but Piccolo had already walked away.

* * *

After a few hours, Gohan had started thinking of his options, he could either give his mother a proper burial, or go back to his master with her body. 'I… I've already committed this atrocity…' Gohan thought 'I… I shouldn't go back empty handed… Piccolo might…' Gohan shuddered, but also thought of the alternative 'he would be so proud of me… but can I really do that to my mother?' Gohan sat a good ways away from his deceased mother, holding his knees in contemplation.

"I'm sorry mother…" He apologized out loud, knowing what must be done. 'I must let master know he can trust me, he's the only one I have left…' the boy got up and started preparing himself for his meeting with Piccolo as he scooped his mother's corpse up and made his way up to the lookout.

Piccolo had marked the other two Saibamen rather quickly; one was named "Mkkyr" and the other "Gorth." Piccolo marked the former with what appeared to be an extra eye, and to the other, Piccolo just clawed his nails into its flesh.

Mrs. Briefs was sitting in a chair, crying while Mr. Popo, who had flown back up on his magic carpet, was comforting her.

"Don't worry Mrs. Briefs, I'm sure that everything will work out…" the genie did not actually think that, but he wanted to cheer his new acquaintance up. The sun was now gone, out of the sky, and in its place was a crescent moon that lit up the entire world with its beauty. No one would notice however, as death and fear filled the air at the lookout. Never before had situations seemed so bleak to everyone on earth, and never before had the heroes of earth seen so much death and destruction.

* * *

Goku lay in his hospital bed, weeping. He had nothing left, Krillin had died, Gohan had been taken away from him, and most of his close friends had been killed in the last fight. He had never felt so helpless laying in that lonely room, all he had left was Chi-Chi, and to a very lesser extent, Master Roshi, who came in from time to time to try and cheer the young man up. Nothing worked, and the usually cheerful Goku quickly turned to depression. The only conclusion that he had come to in his mind was that he must get Gohan back, and perhaps he could live a normal life with Chi-Chi once more. There was another thing as well, one thing that Goku almost never thought of in his entire life. 'I will have revenge…'

* * *

Chiaotzu looked down into the lake near the home that Tien had made for them, which was now lonely and bare. When Chiaotzu told Launch of the bad news, she was completely devastated, crying her eyes out. She was even in her mean form when that happened. But now she had found nothing worth staying for, and left Chiaotzu on his own. Now the little warrior had begun to cry, his tears dropping into the lake, making a ripple effect. For a moment, Chiaotzu thought that he saw his former comrade behind him, but it was all an illusion, and he wept even more. 'How can I make it without you Tien?'

* * *

Dr. Briefs was tinkering with his ship that he had started building, and Bulma was helping him as much as she could. The two of them had worked nonstop for the last 24 hours, hell bent on finishing the projects that Piccolo demanded of them. They had only 2 more days to finish them all, and they planned on it. Bulma was working especially hard, as she did not wish to see her mother die in front of her, and as much as she hated Piccolo, she had to do this for the greater good. She cursed to herself quietly as she drilled a screw into one of the holes of the ship 'If it were anyone but Piccolo we could rig it to explode… but if he dies, then any chance of bringing mom back is history…' She continued to work, knowing that her situation was nearly hopeless.

* * *

Perhaps the one that the recent events hurt most of all was Master Roshi, who was standing outside on the beach, looking out into the ocean that surrounded his house. Two of the three of his students were dead, and one of them was in the hospital, depressed and lonely. It was horrible on the island without Krillin, and Roshi felt completely lost without him. 'Darn that kid… why'd he have to go and get himself killed…' the old hermit wiped a tear that formed and had dropped down below his sunglasses. 'I guess I never really knew how much I thought of him as a son until I lost him…' Roshi couldn't take it anymore, and he broke down and cried, cried for Krillin, cried for Goku, cried for all of those who were lost in the former violence. The master took off his sun glasses out of respect, wiped his tears, and powered up to his absolute maximum. A kamehameha followed, which was sent straight into the air, to honor all of his fallen comrades… his fallen family.

* * *

Piccolo started to get frustrated at the fact that Gohan had not showed up yet, as it had been at least 6 hours since he left.

"What the hell is that kid doing?" Piccolo said, gritting his teeth as he leaned against Kami's house. Mrs. Briefs had taken to sleep, and Mr. Popo was doing whatever Mr. Popo did inside of Kami's lookout, while Kami himself was staring out from the ledge of the lookout, completely concerned as to what was going on.

"Piccolo…" Kami said, just loud enough so that his counterpart could hear. "You have no idea the amount of unnecessary sadness you have brought to the people of earth…" Piccolo smiled at Kami's words, taking as a compliment himself.

"I do what suits me old fool, not what suits the pathetic people of this planet." Kami swiftly turned around to rebuttal.

"You're wrong Piccolo, these people are strong, and overcome the adversities of life. They have prospered and made this planet a wonderful place." Piccolo growled at Kami's words, unconvinced.

"If I wanted to, I could turn this entire planet to rubble. I am the strongest one on the planet right now."

"Then why don't you? If you have the capability, then why not?" Asked the wise Namekian, honestly wanting to know the answer.

"That's simple" Piccolo said with a smile "where's the fun in that?" Kami's heart dropped, knowing that his counterpart was now lost forever, never to return to the side of justice. The old Namek quickly walked back into his quarters to reflect on everything that he had heard today.

After a few moments, Piccolo saw Gohan emerge over the edge of the lookout with a person in his arms. Piccolo smiled.

"Well well, look who decided to come back." Piccolo said, chuckling.

"I… I brought someone…" Gohan said as he landed on the lookout, dropping the person he held on the ground. Piccolo walked over to the boy and the body, took one look and realized who it was. The Namekian donned a look of surprise as he saw her, the face was caved in, but the dress that she wore was a dead giveaway to Piccolo as to who she was.

"G-gohan…" The Namekian said, still utterly shocked at what he saw "Y-you… have done far more than I expected…" Piccolo said, not able to raise even the slightest of smiles. Gohan only looked towards the floor, absolutely ashamed at what he had done. "You have proven to me that you are loyal." Piccolo said, placing his hand on the child's head. "I will never again doubt you Gohan." Piccolo walked away, turned around and crossed his arms.

"M-master, what will we do with the body?" Gohan asked, eyes clear from hours of meditation.

"Throw her over the lookout; the wolves can have her for dinner." The boy quickly looked away to hide his face full of sadness, but complied with what his master said anyway, and threw the body over the edge of the giant lookout without a word.

"We will be departing in 2 days Gohan." Piccolo explained to the boy as he looked up at his master, eyes full of sadness and confusion. "We will train tomorrow, and the day after, we shall leave." The boy nodded, and Piccolo began to walk towards the edge of the lookout. "Go to sleep kid, you're gonna need it for our training."

"Where are-"

"I'm checking on something, I'll be back soon." Gohan nodded once again, and went into the lookout to try and find somewhere to lie for the night, knowing that no sleep would come to him this night.

* * *

**With Gohan's last tie to his humanity destroyed by his own hands, what does the future hold for the young boy? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	15. Chapter 15: Inner Demons

**Chapter 15: Inner Demons**

The darkest night that had descended upon the earth that day, a darkness that no light could pierce. The stars were shown, as well as the moon, but there was something that made this night so different from the others.

Malice and fear ruled the night, there were no happy thoughts, nor memories, save for one.

He chuckled, sending a chill down the spine of anything within earshot; the pure evil could be heard behind it.

The wind rushed past quickly, and another chuckle was heard, bordering on a full out maniacal laugh.

Through the darkness, a toothy grin could be seen, one sharp incisor in a grin most unpleasant, from a monster of unfathomable proportions. He had finally done that which he hoped for, tamed the beast and cut off his ties with the world completely.

"You're mine now, I control you." Another evil chuckle was heard throughout the landscape, a dark voice to fill the dark night.

* * *

Gohan wandered throughout the winding corridors of Kami's lookout, torment and hatred filled his fragile mind as he stepped through the large areas of the structure.

'I shouldn't have…'

Through another hallway the boy trod, and another soon to follow, it seemed as if the lookout had no end.

'You're pathetic.' Another voice screamed out in his mind.

The boy looked up to the endless staircases, making connections to his own life with it.

'It won't ever end, you will never gain his true trust.' Gohan put his palm on the wall of the lookout, a single tear streaming down his face as he slid his hand across the wall.

'It's all over for you boy, you have no one who cares about you.' Gohan suddenly burst into tears, his palm still touching the cold wall of the lookout, bowing his head in sadness and shame.

His tears hit the tile floor, his mind turning against him slowly, not knowing how to react.

'Just give up.'

"No…"

'You know you want to!'

"NO!" Gohan shouted, using his other hand to punch a crater into the wall that he was touching.

'It makes you feel better doesn't it? Destruction, it heals your mind.'

Gohan dropped to the ground, his tears staining the floor, and the voices growing stronger in his mind.

"When will it stop… Please stop…" Gohan quietly pleaded with himself.

'It will never stop, you'll never be free.'

In a desperate attempt to quiet the voice in his head, Gohan bashed his skull against the floor as hard as he could. The voice stopped, but Gohan was now unconscious.

* * *

"What!" The old man shouted at the top of his lungs. "This was never a part of our agreement!" An enraged Dr. Briefs clenched his fist while Bulma, ignorant of their conversation until this point, was working on the ship.

"What is it dad?" Bulma asked, dropping some welding tools to look and scoff at the evil green alien. Piccolo smiled back at her, sickening Bulma to the core.

"You can't do this Piccolo! Why don't I just give you this manual? Or set the coordinates automatically?" Dr. Briefs tried to reason, but Piccolo would have none of it.

"Forget it old man, I don't trust this heap of garbage any more than I trust you." Piccolo's smirk was now gone, arms crossed and totally down to business. Bulma looked quite confused.

"What do you want Piccolo?" The woman said in a tone most severe. Piccolo turned his head slightly and acknowledged her.

"You will be coming with me when we take off in two day, not your mother." Bulma shot back, looking frantically back between her father and Piccolo. "This isn't a choice you can make, you're coming with me whether you like it or not." Bulma covered her mouth with her right hand and shook her head from side to side. 'Get it together Bulma… Don't let him see you like this…' The blue haired woman gave her head one violent shake to calm herself, and she addressed the Namekian.

"And… you'll let my mother go?" She asked, holding her hand close to her chest with the other tightly clenched by her side.

"I have no other use for her, so fine." Bulma heaved a sigh of relief "I will make the trade on the day of launch; make sure that you know how to pilot that thing before we take off." Piccolo turned around and looked up at the ceiling where he had come in before.

"Wait! Piccolo…" Dr. Briefs held out his hand as if to signal Piccolo to stop. The alien did not turn around.

"What is it old man? My patients wear thin."

"I… Please tell me how my wife is…" Dr. Briefs pleaded. The Namek merely chuckled, and then blasted off out into the dark night once again, leaving the two geniuses to their work.

* * *

Trokar had been training with Skriatch for most of the night, and he had finally tired of it after many intense hours. The small green aliens communicated in their own language for a brief moment, and then set off on their own ways. Trokar was rather curious as to what the lookout held, something that none of the other Saibamen truly cared about, as they enjoyed power rather than curiosity. However, this Saibamen was different, and he set out through the lookout just as the Saiyan Gohan had that night before.

Hours passed and Trokar had gotten nowhere, but he did sense something very small, a sort of power level that was familiar to him.

He followed this power level, going through many hallways and stairwells until he finally found the source of the power; an unconscious Gohan. Trokar couldn't explain it, but for some reason, he could sense something terribly amiss in the young boy's mind…

* * *

"Ugh…" The blurred vision made it hard to see, and all that was visible was an outline of a bookshelf. He could clearly feel that there was a blanket over him, but he had absolutely no idea where he was.

The boy slowly propped himself up by his elbows, finally noticing he was also on a bed. 'This… seems so familiar…'

As the child's vision came back, he gasped in surprise and freight to find that he was in his room, back in his old house.

"This… this is a dream…" Gohan said to himself, trying to calm down. He slid his feet to the ground and rubbed his eyes, taking in the sights around him. "It feels so real…" Gohan walked over to his desk and picked up a book, he had never seen this particular one, and next to it was a paper that had notes on the book.

"I… what is this?" He said quietly, reading over the notes carefully. "Carbon Monoxide… CO… Chemical compounds? Mixtures? There's no way this could be a dream… I don't know an-" Gohan dropped the papers and quickly darted his head around the room after hearing footsteps.

"Who's there?" Gohan said aloud with no answer. The footsteps drew down the stairs and close to his doorway. "I said who's there?" Gohan yelled, clenching his fists and putting on a scowl for the invader.

The door opened and Gohan was not ready for who was at the door.

"M-mother?" Gohan's eyes shot open, tears forming in his eyes.

"What's going on Gohan? I heard noises coming from your room." Gohan took a step back, not knowing how to respond. The boy's mouth was agape, not knowing what this all was, or what was really going on.

"M-mom, is that really you?" Gohan said, nearly crying. Concerned, Chi-Chi donned a look of confusion.

"Of course it's me Gohan! Now why don't you tell me what's wrong?" His mother looked real enough, but could it be? Could all that happened have been a dream? A cruel nightmare?

"Oh mom…" Gohan broke down and ran towards his mother, embracing her and letting his tear drops wet her nightgown. "I'm so sorry…"

"Sorry for what Gohan? Please tell me what's wrong, you're scaring mommy…" Chi-Chi held her baby boy close, comforting him.

"N-nothing mother… Just a terrible dream…"

"It's going to be alright sweetie…" And for once, Gohan cracked a smile, knowing that everything would be ok…

"Kid…"

"What was that mommy?" Gohan said, looking up at his mother, who stared blankly at the wall. Gohan gasped and backed away, knowing full well what was going on.

"No… no no no! Please let this be real… Please!" Gohan pleaded, to no avail.

The room around the boy started to crumble and fade, and he didn't know what to do but cry, and cry he did…

* * *

The Saiyan regained finally consciousness, staring up at golden sky. The sun was rising and to his left was Piccolo, trying to wake the boy, with Trokar to the right staring straight at him.

"Good, you're awake." Piccolo said, standing up. Feeling slightly groggy, Gohan attempted to stand up, Trokar helping him along.

"M-master…" Gohan said solemnly, remembering his 'dream' all too well. "It happened again…" Piccolo knew exactly what the boy meant.

"Are you sure? Are you positive it wasn't just a dream this time?" Quizzed the Namekian, the boy shook his head from side to side.

"No… this was real…" For the next couple of minutes, Gohan explained to Piccolo in detail what he had seen, and why the boy knew that this was no mere fantasy. Piccolo listened intently, making what he could of the boy's story.

"I see…" Piccolo said after Gohan had finished his story, the Saibamen had all gathered around the boy and were all looking at Piccolo to hear what he had to say. "This… Seems all too strange… No matter, we should get ready to depart." The Namek looked at the small green aliens and gave them each specific instructions;

"Skriatch and Lod, grab all of the food and water you can find and take it with us." They both nodded and ran into the lookout past Mr. Popo and Mrs. Briefs.

"Gorth, you stay here and protect Kami at all costs… as much as I hate the old bastard, if he dies, so do I." As the other Saibamen had, Gorth nodded and looked around the lookout.

"Trokar, you grab Mrs. Briefs and take her with us, we're gonna need her in the near future." As Piccolo finished the order, Mr. Popo yelled to the Alien.

"No! She's been through enough, leave her be!" The Genie took a fighting stance in front of the woman, who was on the verge of tears. Piccolo shook his head in disproval.

"You never learn do you?" He then cracked an eerie smile "Mkkyr, would you be so kind as to kill Mr. Popo?" Having been deprived of a good killing, the sadistic Saibamen grew unnecessarily excited, clenching his fists and taking in the adrenaline for a fight.

Mr. Popo stayed still, but gulped hard in anxiousness… Mkkyr was finally ready, and he quickly zoomed towards the terrified Genie when out of nowhere, Kami flung himself right in front of Mr. Popo, arms wide open ready to take the attack. Piccolo was mortified, and quickly ordered the Saibamen to halt his attack.

Just before the Saibamen could strike the old Namekian down, Gohan quickly tackled the Saibamen to the ground. Realizing how close he had come to death, Piccolo made a sigh of relief.

"Idiot, Why did you jump in front of this fool?" Piccolo yelled at his counterpart, who backed down and told Mr. Popo to be calm as well.

"Do not worry Mr. Popo, Piccolo does not mean to harm your friend. Let him have her, she will be ok." Kami reassured the Genie, who nodded in reluctance and moved out of the way. Trokar walked over to the woman, but Mrs. Briefs would not have it.

"No! I refuse to be carried by this little monster!" She screamed, causing Trokar to back off slightly. Piccolo released a sigh of annoyance.

"Fine, Gohan, you carry her." The boy nodded and obeyed his orders after dusting himself off from the fall to the ground. Mkkyr was also up, and visibly angry, but decided to calm down after realizing that he would have a chance to kill another day. As Skriatch and Lod came out of the lookout holding a fair amount of supplies, Piccolo decided that it was time to go.

"Mkkyr, you just follow us and make sure that nothing gets dropped." Piccolo ordered, Mkkyr nodded in agreement. As the group headed over to the edge of the lookout, Kami decided to have one final word with his counterpart.

"The Namekian Dragon Balls… What will you use them for Piccolo?" As the wise guardian of Earth awaited a response, he sense that a sinister plot was growing in Piccolo's mind, a plan which he was hiding from Kami.

"Hah… that's for me to know, and for you to find out." A grin spread across Piccolo's face as he took off into the sky with his band of evil minions, leaving Kami and Mr. Popo with a grave feeling in their hearts.

* * *

As the day slowly came to a close, Gohan reflected on what had happened in his mind the night before. The group had found a nice area in the mountains to train and rest for the trip to Namek, but Gohan was too deep in thought to be bothered with any sort of training.

'That's the second time… What's wrong with me?' Gohan wondered in his mind. 'And what is with this voice in my head that comes and goes as it pleases?' One thing that Gohan had neglected to mention to his master was that small brutal voice that Gohan heard, the one that taunted him constantly.

Gohan looked up as Skriatch and Trokar exchanged blows, both being relatively the same power as the other; they were fighting their hardest to prove who the superior fighter was. 'Why do I have these visions?' Gohan contemplated as he bowed his head down, shedding a single tear for his lost mother.

* * *

Meanwhile, Master Roshi was meeting with Goku at the hospital along with Chiaotzu, Oolong and Puar. Goku had wanted to see his wife that day, but Roshi had no idea where Chi-Chi was.

"Could you go and check out Goku's house Chiaotzu? Maybe Chi-Chi is on her way here right now!" Roshi smiled in an attempt to make Goku feel better, but the Saiyan just wasn't feeling great at all.

"No, it's all right Chiaotzu, if Chi-Chi finds out that you were looking to bring her here, she would yell at me for not trusting her…" Goku looked around the room quickly, as if hiding some sort of emotion from his friends.

"Alright Goku, I'm sure that she's thinking of you right now." Chiaotzu exclaimed, sitting on one of the chairs in the medical room. Oolong and Puar sat on the same chair, with Oolong twiddling with his thumbs and Puar looking towards the ground. She was so upset over all of the recent events that she had stopped talking completely.

"So uh… how's the hospital food champ?" Oolong asked his friend, who in all honesty had not eaten much since the day he was taken to the hospital.

"It's fine…" The dark haired Saiyan lied. Roshi sensed something new in the way that Goku talked something dark. The old hermit didn't like it, but he wasn't about to call his only living student out on it in his time of need.

"Not so talkative today are we?" Roshi asked Goku, who remained silent and turned around to face the window, looking out at the birds, jealous of their freedom. "Maybe a couple of girly mags will turn that frown into a smile eh? Hehe…" Master Roshi tried to smile, but a tear had come to his eye. He silently thanked his sunglasses from hiding it.

Everyone in the room was now silent, not knowing exactly what to say, until they heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Oolong said to the person, opening the door without giving an answer. Everyone but Goku turned to face the one who entered.

"Korin? What are you doing here?" Roshi asked the cat, who closed the door behind him.

"Goku, I must know something." Korin said to the Saiyan, who stayed silent. The god-cat sighed silently, asking his burning question. "What are your thoughts at this exact moment?" Korin awaited a response from Goku, but the room stayed painfully silent. The dark haired man would not talk, and yet the cat still waited to hear from him. Roshi's interest was piqued, looking at Goku and awaiting for a response as well, with Oolong, Puar and Chiaotzu beginning to become curious as well. After a few minutes of total silence, Goku finally spoke up:

"Piccolo…" Was all the words that he spoke. Master Roshi looked to the ground, ashamed at what his pupil was thinking. Korin and the others were also disturbed that Goku had this mentality…

"I taught you better than this Goku…" Master Roshi explained to his student, who stayed silent once again. Korin turned around shook his head, gripping his walking stick with a rather large force.

"It's as I thought…" and with that, Korin left, leaving behind a confused room full of fighters.

Roshi thought for a moment, and finally knew what had just happened.

'Oh no… Goku… what happened to you?' As the master gritted his teeth in frustration, Korin was already on his way towards Earths only hope for survival.

* * *

**What information does Korin have to impart? And why didn't he tell Goku? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	16. Chapter 16: Departure

**Chapter 16: Departure**

The midday sun was beating down harshly this day, which did not help to calm Gohan's mind in the slightest. In fact it just yesterday that he had killed his own mother, as well as had a vision of what seemed to be an event from an alternate timeline. So much was coursing through the boy's mind that Piccolo decided that the boy should take this day for mental preparation rather than physical training, as he had ordered the Saibamen to do.

For at least 2 hours Gohan had contemplated everything. His life so far, his choices, and most importantly, Piccolo…

In just two short years, Gohan had managed to isolate himself from everyone that Goku had once called a friend, killed his own mother, and grew to a power that no one could ever have imaged the boy capable of. Why was the boy so obsessed? He fought for something, he knew that much, be it his hatred of his father, or for the acceptance of Piccolo, or a combination of both, the boy knew that somewhere in it all he had a purpose, and that he was never going to falter from his main objectives.

'Make my master proud…' Thought Gohan 'and destroy the man who ruined my life!' The small Saiyan clenched his fists but quickly calmed himself, sighing and then laying down for a bit.

As he looked up at the ceiling of the small cave in which the group had decided to make a temporary home, the boy was reminded of a story that someone had once told him before Raditz had come to Earth, it was a story of a young Tiger named Grael, who was the most angry and lonely tiger who lived in the jungle. Every time that anyone would try to befriend Grael, the tiger's anger only served to push them away, until there were no more tigers who even wanted to see Grael in the jungle any longer... there was a second part of the story that Gohan had forgotten however. Why Gohan's mind had chosen to remember this specific story he did not know, but somehow it must be resonating in his life… or at least that's what the young boy thought.

'It doesn't matter… I've pushed everyone away but Piccolo, and I'm never going to let him down.' Gohan assured himself before drifting lightly off to sleep.

While Gohan pondered his existence, Piccolo only pondered why the boy had such a power as to see into an alternate reality. This truly perplexed Piccolo, who was not a believer in such a thing as different realities separate from his own, but he figured that the possibility may in fact be there. What had happened in the past two years that had sparked these phenomena? Piccolo could only assume that perhaps something in the hyperbolic time chamber had interfered with Gohan's thoughts, as it was in a different dimension, although Piccolo still wasn't buying into it. Kami may have played his hand in this, one night while the boy slept; he could have given him some kind of otherworldly powers of perception beyond realities…

Piccolo shook off these possibilities quickly, although he knew that anything was possible, it just seemed too farfetched to even be plausible. 'If Kami had such a power, no doubt I would have known about it by now.' The Namekian pondered, arms crossed, leaning against a wall of the cave while the Saibamen trained even more vigorously than ever before.

Flustered by not knowing what was going on, Piccolo snarled quietly to no one in particular; a sleeping Gohan didn't even notice. 'None of this makes sense, but I should focus my energies on more important matters at hand.' Thought Piccolo, turning quickly to see that someone, or thing, had landed at the mouth of the cave.

"Who are you?" The Namekian shouted to the small figure approaching him, the Saibamen all stopped their training and rushed to the mouth of the cave. Piccolo raised his hand in a signal for them all to stop as the Namekian finally discerned the identity of the mystery person. "So it's you, why have you come here?" Korin looked around the cave, noting the sleeping woman and child.

"This is a nice place you have here Piccolo, but would you mind if we could talk somewhere a bit more private?" The cat asked, to which Piccolo nodded. The Namekian led Korin into a secluded area in the cave, where no one else would be able to hear them.

"What do you want?" Piccolo asked, crossing his arms and staring at the anthropomorphic cat. Korin sighed, and then spoke;

"You have driven Goku to the brink of his sanity; all he can think about now is killing you…" The cat explained as Piccolo grinned in a sadistic manner "presumably so that he may have his son back, but Goku has never acted in such a way before, it scared me when I talked to him."

"Why should I care? Goku means nothing to me anymore." Piccolo stated "My father's dream will be realized, but Goku poses no threat to me anymore, I am stronger than he will ever be!" The Namekian let out a slight evil chuckle.

Korin looked absolutely ashamed, looking away from Piccolo and speaking once more.

"I would help Goku any day over you, but for the sake of this planet, I must give you these…" Korin said as he took out a bag full of senzu beans. Piccolo looked perplex, he didn't understand why Korin would even consider giving these to Piccolo, but Korin knew full well what would be on planet Namek.

Korin had visited Goku a few times since he was put out of action, and from those visits he had used his mind reading capabilities to tap into Goku's deepest thoughts, and what he found the first time frightened him to the core. King Kai, the one who had trained Goku ever since he had died from the fight with Raditz, had told Goku about the dangers of the planet Namek, and about an evil tyrant who went by the name of Frieza. King Kai had predicted that the tyrant would soon be upon planet Namek after gaining valuable Intel from Vegeta and Nappa regarding Dragon Balls and their relation with Namekians. The Kai had also ordered Goku to tell everyone of this, in hopes that Piccolo could somehow stop the tyrant from gaining the Dragon Balls and destroying the universe as they knew it, but Goku had decided to keep this information to himself. Korin was, to be blatantly honest, appalled that Goku would keep such invaluable knowledge away from everyone, but Korin had decided that it would not be appropriate to tell anyone but Master Roshi what was going on.

The two of them had made a joint decision, that no one should know about this but Piccolo and Gohan, as they were the only two people on planet earth who could truly put a stop to Frieza, and so here he was, about to help out the world last and only hope, as well as its worst enemy.

"Piccolo… there is an evil ruler by the name of Frieza." Korin explained, Piccolo listening intently. "His power is… far greater than anything that we could possibly imagine, or so it is said." Piccolo chuckled slightly.

"I doubt that he could stand five minutes against me." Korin shook his head in disappointment.

"Do not underestimate him Piccolo, for from what I have heard; his power could indeed far exceed those Saiyans that you dealt with, by over 1000 times their strength." Piccolo's jaw dropped slightly when he heard this, but quickly regained his composure. "You are the last hope of this planet, and I am obligated to give you these." Korin reached out his hand with the Senzu beans in them, and Piccolo grabbed them, tying them to his belt. "Do not waste those beans; they may be the only thing that will save this planet." Korin began to walk out of the cave, Piccolo followed closely behind. Before the ancient cat took off from the mouth of the cave, he decided to impart some last words of wisdom to the Namekian.

"King Piccolo was a fool, and you would be too to think that humans are as useless as he did." Piccolo only grunted as a rebuttal, allowing the cat to fly off back to his tower. As he had expected, the Saibamen were all back to training, and Gohan was still asleep. The next day would be an event filled one, and the group would finally be setting off for Namek, which excited Piccolo greatly. 'I'll finally be able to know where I came from…' He grinned and sat down on the floor of the cave, meditating for the trip that he was going to take.

Bulma looked out the window, staring off into the sunset as she and her father worked as fast as they possibly could with the help of some aides, they were nearing the deadline that Piccolo had set and were actually surprised to find that they were nearly done. For the last 3 days, they had not slept, barely eaten or drank anything, and all of the work had truly paid off, as before them stood a nearly completed ship, ready to take off to the planet Namek. Dr. Briefs had miraculously found some coordinate data on the Saiyans ships that led directly to the planet that Piccolo had spoke of, and so he had installed it into the ships auto pilot.

While they were both very pleased with their work, they were dreading tomorrow, as it would be the day that Bulma would be taken from her family, and Dr. Briefs honestly didn't know if he would ever see his precious daughter ever again.

"How long do you think until we finish Dr. Briefs?" A random worker asked the genius man, who was busy working as well.

"I would say… about 4 hours and we should be done." All of the workers were relieved that their time was almost done working on this contraption, as they had also been working diligently on this project with Dr. Briefs and his daughter. 'I truly hope that this works…' Dr. Briefs hoped in his mind.

As night set upon the city, Goku rolled to his left side to see if anyone was in the room with him. When he found that the coast was clear, and that the door was shut, he decided to try and get out of bed. As his feet touched the floor, he swore he could almost feel the cold tiles on the ground, but found that he was still as numb as ever. Ever so slowly, he rose up out of the bed and took his first step, although the IV's attached to him restricted his movement, he tore them off and kept walking forward.

'I… I have to get Piccolo before he leaves…' Goku thought as he made his way to the door. He was numb, his whole body, so he couldn't feel that his entire body was sending impulses to his brain that essentially said 'Stop, now!' and so the Saiyan kept trying to walk, in a futile attempt to bring his nemesis to justice.

"Goku, please stop." A voice said from behind him. As quickly as Goku could, he turned around to find Chiaotzu had flown through his open window.

"Ch… Chiaotzu?" Goku choked out, barely able to stand. Feeling very weak, Goku nearly fell unconscious, but Chiaotzu had managed to catch the Saiyan before he fell to the floor. The small fighter flew him back to his bad and held one of his hands. "Wh-why are you here?" Goku asked, a tear forming on Chiaotzu face.

"I… I miss him Goku… I miss Tien so much…" Chiaotzu tried to hold back the tears as he held tightly to Goku's hand. "B-but… that's not what I came here to t-talk about… It's about you…" He explained, wiping his eye with his free hand. "Even though I miss him Goku… I won't ever forget all of the good things we did together…" Goku was confused, what was Chiaotzu getting at?

"W-what does this… have t-to do with me?" Goku said, turning out as barely a whisper. Chiaotzu sighed, and stayed silent for a few seconds before finally speaking.

"Gohan… the one that you knew, he's dead…" Goku's eyes widened in disbelief.

"B-but I… saw him…" The small fighter closed his eyes and looked away.

"No… Gohan is still alive, but your son… he's dead…" Goku was immensely confused, not knowing at all what Chiaotzu was talking about. "When I saw him that day… fighting that Saiyan, he… he looked so different, he looked like a killer… he enjoyed toying with his victim…" Goku shook his head from side to side, not wanting to hear any of this.

"Enough!" Goku shouted as loudly as his lungs would allow, which wasn't very loud at all, and tore his hand away from Chiaotzu's. "M-my son would never…"

"I saw it with my own eyes Goku! The little boy that we knew… he's gone, replaced by a monster!" As tears started to roll down Goku's face, he began only to despise Piccolo more, for not only ruining his life, but his child's as well.

"Get out of here Ch-Chiaotzu… get out now!" The small man swung his head from side to side.

"No, Goku, I know you want revenge…" Chiaotzu said, causing Goku to look at him through his tear filled eyes. "And I want it too… so I have a plan…"

"W-What is it?" Goku asked, desperately wanting to kill Piccolo more than ever.

"I st-"

"Who's in there?" A doctor shouted, turning the doorknob. "No visitors while the patient tries to sleep!" Goku tilted his head towards the windows.

"See me f-first thing in the morning." Goku managed to choke out, and Chiaotzu swiftly left the room before the doctor had barged in.

"Who were you talking to?" The doctor asked, scanning the room for any sign of a person besides the patient.

"N-no one, I must have been sleep talking…" Goku said as he dozed off into sleep, leaving the doctor wondering why his IV's were torn off.

Gohan awoke very early in the morning, just after the sun had risen over the horizon to find Piccolo deep in a meditative state. The boy knew never to bother his master while he was meditating, so Gohan flew out of the cave and began to collect various items for breakfast, as well as finding a water source for the Saibamen.

While out looking, Gohan's mind was relatively clear. After sorting out what was truly important in his life, the boy had found a new purpose, and decided to drive himself with those principles that he had learned. While his inner child longed to be let out of this prison, Gohan would not allow it, and locked away all of the feelings of goodness in his heart, never once wanting to let them out.

The boy stocked up quite a bit of food in a makeshift bag that he had learned to make in the months that Piccolo had left him in the wilderness, as he would need it for the trip to Namek, as well as Mrs. Briefs. He quickly gathered fruits and other edible items, including some meat off of animals that he came across in the wild. In all honestly, it was a bore compared to the exciting feeling of fighting, as he had when he fought Vegeta and Nappa back in what seemed to be many years ago. As Gohan looked at the food he had collected, he realized that he would need to make several trips in order to carry all of the food that was required, but before the small Saiyan began to dash back to the cave, he felt a very familiar energy heading towards Piccolo…

Minutes earlier…

Goku laid in wait for Chiaotzu to show up, visiting hours were about to start, and Goku was eager to know what he had planned. A knock on the door made him smile, and in walked the doctor to check on him.

"Hello Goku, how are you feeling this morning?" The doctor asked, checking the Saiyan's bodily functions as he regularly did in the mornings.

"I'm fine… is there anyone here to visit?" Goku asked, to which the doctor replied;

"Oh, yes, there was someone who wanted to see you, I'll have the nurses send him in right away." In just a few moments, Chiaotzu came through the door. "I'll leave you two alone." The doctor said as he exited the room. Chiaotzu walked towards Goku's bed, taking something small out of his pocket.

"W-what is that?" Goku asked, half knowing already.

"I… I stole this from Korin…" The small fighter said as he held out the bean, which Goku reached out and grabbed slowly.

"This…" Goku said, eyeing the bean while a tear formed from the corner of his eye. Chiaotzu watched as Goku slid the bean into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed it, finally rising to his feet, fully re energized.

"How do you fe-" Before Chiaotzu could finish his sentence, Goku blasted off through the window, hell bent on reaching Piccolo before he and Gohan took off that day.

Gohan raced back to the cave as quickly as he possibly could, seeing Piccolo and the Saibamen were already standing outside the cave, waiting for whoever was approaching.

"Master, who is it?" The boy asked, touching down to the ground with the others. Piccolo stared up into the sky for a moment, not wanting to divulge the information, but quickly decided to change his mind.

"It's Goku…" At the mention of the name, Gohan shot back in surprise and excitement, a sadistic grin spread across the boy's face as he clenched his fist.

"Good…" Piccolo could hear the boy say under his breath, knowing that somehow, the encounter with Goku would go over well.

In the few minutes that they had, the Saibamen, as well as Gohan, powered up immensely, and as soon as Goku finally touched down in front of the group, Gohan was ready to pounce and destroy this man… his tormentor… once and for all.

No one spoke a word for the longest time, and all Goku did was stare at Piccolo with a burning hatred. Goku had not taken the time to change into his battle garb, and was only covered by a hospital gown, which intrigued some members of the group greatly, and finally Piccolo called him out on it.

"So, you got a hold of a bean did you? And you came here first to teach me a lesson…" Piccolo chucked as Goku took a fighting stance, not wanting to hear any more of this monster, but to his surprise, a voice rang out to protect him.

"You aren't going to lay a finger on him!" Gohan shouted, stepping in front of Piccolo while also using a battle stance. Goku, not wanting to fight his son, backed down slightly.

"Gohan, get out of the way, this is between me and Piccolo!" Shouted the man that Gohan hated most, infuriating the child to a point that almost no one could calm him.

"No! Shut up! You will fight me!" Screamed Gohan, about to dash forward to end Goku's life.

"Gohan! Stop!" Piccolo screamed, snapping the boy out of his anger and turning to face his master. "That is enough, we don't have time for this, and we have to leave for Namek soon." The Namekian placed his hand on the boys shoulder, moving him aside to face his nemesis. "You aren't using your head Goku, if I die, all of your friends have no chance of coming back." Goku shook his head.

"Not if I use the ones on Namek!" He shouted, causing Piccolo to grit his teeth in frustration.

"You don't have the power! Earth would be annihilated!" The Namekian replied, causing Goku to twitch slightly.

A pause followed, and knowing that there was no talking the Saiyan down, Piccolo slowly dropped into a battle stance, not even bothering to take his weighted clothing off. Goku would start things off.

"Kaio-ken!" Goku screamed as he was enveloped in an aura of crimson, dashing towards his most hated foe in an attempt to end the battle quickly.

It was a foolish attempt, and Piccolo knew it. Due to his advanced training in the time chamber, Goku was essentially only 3/4ths as powerful as Piccolo, in the Kaio-ken state. As Goku neared his target, Piccolo could easily track his movements, and finally, blocked Goku's attack, and delivered a swift but brutal kick right to his Stomach, which caused Goku to double back in sheer pain, and finally collapse on the floor, coughing up blood. As the Saiyan lay on the ground, Piccolo shook his head in disappointment.

"Skriatch, grab the woman, we need to get going." Gohan's eyes widened in disbelief.

"We can't just leave him here alive! Let me kill him master! Please!" Flustered, Piccolo turned around quickly and slapped Gohan hard with the back of his hand, sending Gohan flying a few yards before he regained his balance in the sky.

"You do as I say Gohan!" Screamed the Namekian, turning around once more to make sure that Goku was still writhing in pain, as he noticed that the Saiyan was not getting up any time soon, he turned back to Gohan. "He's not worth it right now Gohan, he needs to get stronger, otherwise all of the training that I have given you is useless! Do you understand?" He shouted at the boy, who reluctantly nodded his head.

"Y-yes… master…" The boy dropped back to the ground as Skriatch grabbed Mrs. Briefs, and the whole group took off into the skies, leaving Goku on the ground, couching up his own blood.

Having finished the ship hours earlier, Bulma and her father had taken it outside, and when they saw Piccolo and his group coming over the horizon, a feeling of dread and happiness came over them. As soon as they touched down, Piccolo gave the order to release Mrs. Briefs, and the woman gleefully ran towards her child and husband, hugging them in an embrace that sickened the Namekian greatly.

After only a few moments, Piccolo decided to speak up.

"The ship, tell me how it works." As Dr. Briefs broke the heartfelt greeting, he nodded and ushered the group into the ship that he had built with his daughter. The main room was spacious, and had a contraption in the middle of it which Piccolo had no clue the function of.

"What is this?" He asked the scientist, who quickly made his way over to the control panel.

"This is something that I've been working on for quite some time, it is a mechanism that allows the gravity inside of the ship to increase, and thus, allowing for a better work out." As Dr. Briefs finished his explanation, Piccolo chuckled.

"Pretty inventive, I'm impressed." He admitted, making their way to the other places on the ship.

"This hole here leads to the living quarters and food storage." Dr. Briefs explained, not actually heading down. "This place will not be affected by the increase in gravity, so one person may train while the other rests." A thought came to Piccolo's mind regarding Gohan, who had not brought back any food from his morning run.

"Is there any food already on board?" The Namekian asked, Dr. Briefs nodded.

"We added a stock of food to the ship, so little Gohan here can survive." Gohan did not look at Dr. Briefs, but only stared blankly forward. For the next few minutes, the Doctor showed Piccolo how to operate the controls of the ship, and explained of the other functions.

Bulma, in the mean time, was watching the ship closely, not knowing what to say to her mother, as this would be the last time she would be seeing her for a very long time.

"Mom… I…" A tear formed on her face as Mrs. Briefs hugged her daughter.

"I love you too." She said, stroking her daughter's hair gently as she used to do when she was a young child. As Dr. Briefs came out of the ship, so did one of Piccolo's henchman, which Bulma nor her father had ever seen.

"Bulma, Piccolo ordered this little guy to take you aboard the ship…" Trokar nodded as Bulma began to sigh, not wanting to show any sign of weakness when she got aboard the ship.

"Dad, I love you… take care of yourselves, ok?" Bulma said as she followed the Saibamen into the ship. Dr. Briefs held his wife's hand, watching in despair for a few minutes, and finally watching the ship carrying their daughter blast off to an unknown future.

* * *

**What adventure lies ahead for Piccolo and his followers in the depths of space? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	17. Chapter 17: The Trip

**Chapter 17: The Trip**

The Ship had left Earth's atmosphere, and the many passengers aboard the ship were trying to get accustomed to their new surroundings. The Saibamen easily adjusted, as they always had, and Trokar was eager to begin his training, while some of the other passengers, namely Bulma and Gohan, could not seem to relax in this new environment. Bulma now knew that she would essentially be living with a murderer, the one who killed her beloved Yamcha… and that did not sit well with her at all.

Gohan however, had an entirely different problem. Goku was there, on the ground and writhing in pain… why had Piccolo not let him finish what he wanted so desperately to do? 'It would have been so easy to crush his neck!' Gohan screamed inside of his mind, clenching his fists and staring down at the orange tiled floor.

The child stood there for what seemed to be an eternity to him, playing out in his mind what he _**should **_have done to that miserable excuse for a fighter, but a voice rang in his mind, loud and clear as the moment that he had heard it; _**'he needs to get stronger, otherwise all of the training that I have given you is useless!'**_

Gohan kicked the phrase in his mind some for some time, not realizing that both Trokar as well as Skriatch had started preparation to train.

'Is he trying to prove a point?' Gohan asked himself, pondering further 'or is he truly wanting me to test my skills against Goku's fullest power, so that I may embarrass him further…' Just as his mind wandered further, Piccolo reached out and grabbed the boys shoulder.

"Were going to start training." Said the green alien. Gohan shrugged, saying nothing and following his master to the control pad.

"Wait, I need to get into the living space!" Bulma shouted, rushing towards the hole in the ground, finally climbing down.

"Riddance." Said Skriatch, with a sneering look in his eyes. Piccolo smirked.

"We're turning it up to 15 times Earths normal gravity, we lasted in the time chamber unhindered, so this shouldn't be that much harder." Piccolo stated, looking over at the two weaker Saibamen. "You two" He tilted his head towards the living space "get in there; you won't be able to handle this." Both of the Saibamen nodded and quickly retreated into the hole. Piccolo pressed a button that sealed the chamber from the adverse gravity effects, and turned on the machine.

* * *

The ship ran exceptionally well for something that Piccolo had not given the scientist much time for, and he almost felt a tinge of respect for Dr. Briefs, but that quickly dissipated as time went on. The training got more and more heavy over time, as the days drudged on, both Piccolo and Gohan were able to take on greater and greater limitations, and ultimately the two stronger Saibamen, Skriatch and Trokar, just couldn't keep up with them anymore around 35 times normal gravity. That didn't stop Piccolo or Gohan however, who trained so hard every day that they would sometimes need a senzu bean to be brought back from the brink of total exhaustion, but Piccolo knew that they should conserve the beans as well as they possibly could, just in case things on Namek were to get heated.

Days turned into weeks, and soon both of the fighters had reached a dangerously high gravity that neither of them would have dreamed of training on during their time on earth. They had finally broken 75 times normal gravity, and they weren't even ready to stop.

* * *

Throughout the time that Piccolo and Gohan trained, the Saibamen did their part by keeping Bulma company, and while they weren't particularly good at it, they were the closest things that she had to friends at the time. She had found herself very attached to one in particular, Lod, who had shown her the most kindness out of all of the Saibamen. He would usually agree to play a game of cards with her, which would often end with Lod getting confused halfway through and Bulma trying to explain what he should have done. She had figured for a group of alien beings that seemed so savage on the outside, they could indeed be taught to be less malicious with a little friendship... or at least some could.

She did not like Skriatch or Mkkyr well at all. Skriatch seemed, to Bulma, to have some sort of air about him that screamed 'not to be trusted' and so she heeded her senses. However, the other, Mkkyr, just seemed to be another blood thirsty alien out for a good kill. One day that Bulma remembered vividly was the day that she had nearly died because of his pointless bloodlust, and was only spared because both Trokar and Lod stopped Mkkyr before he could kill her.

She supposed that Trokar was ok, if not for a bit smug. He took great pride in his power, and did not take much notice of Bulma for her lack of strength, but she also didn't mind being left alone anyway. All in all, she definitely missed her home, but she was trying to make the best she could with what little she had.

She barely saw Gohan at all, between his training and sleep he only had time to eat and drink. He only did so for a few minutes before starting his training again, but Bulma was worried sick about his well being. Goku had been her friend all these years, seemed like a brother of sorts to her, and she felt as if she had some sort of responsibility for the young Gohan. He was so small when she first saw him, in fact that was the first time she had seen him at all, but he reminded her of Goku when he was a young boy. He was ambitious, but yet… so corrupted by this evil demon who had ruined the world in which she lived. Most of her friends were dead, Yamcha, Tien, Krillin, she had even missed Yajirobe… but she knew that there was no way to bring them back if Piccolo could not be stopped, and with Gohan on his side, they both seemed to be unbeatable. That was why Bulma had decided that once and for all she had to convince Gohan of Piccolo's selfish ways, and bring him back to the side of good where he belonged.

* * *

Bulma had been making sure that their course was still set on Namek, and found that they would be landing in only a few days.

"Breathable atmosphere… Check." She said to herself, reading off of the computer screen. "Two suns… so the planet is almost always in a state of perpetual day, that's good." As she kept looking over the screen, she heard a noise coming from the kitchen. At first she looked away, unsure of what to say in case it had been Piccolo, but decided to speak up anyway; "Hey, whose there?" She yelled to the person in the darkness. There was a brief pause as the movement and noise ceased, but a voice pierced through the darkness.

"It's Gohan, get back to work." Bulma sighed, rubbing her eyes and glancing back at her screen for a moment.

"Why don't you come here Gohan? I have a few things I could show you." Bulma could have swore that she heard a sigh coming from the boy, but decided to ignore it as she could hear his footsteps coming closer to her. As he became visible to her, she could see his shaggy longish hair, messy and unkempt.

"What do you want? I'm supposed to be resting right now." Gohan said, holding a drink in his hand.

"Well, I just thought that maybe you would like to know what the planet is like. You know, breathable atmosphere, what the landscape is like, all of that." Bulma smiled slightly, but Gohan shook his head.

"Take that stuff up with Master, I'm not interested in what the planet is like." Gohan began to walk away, but Bulma put her hand on his shoulder. Gohan quickly and violently shrugged his shoulder away from her, shouting; "don't you dare touch me!"

A long silence followed, and neither Gohan nor Bulma wanted to be the one to break it. If Piccolo wasn't training at that moment, he would have heard Gohan's shouting, but as it were, it was as if the two were completely alone on the ship.

"I… I'm sorry…" Bulma said, looking Gohan in the eyes, but the young warrior would have none of it.

"Don't bother me again; I have more important things to worry about than you." He broke the eye contact and walked away, leaving Bulma in tears.

* * *

A few days before landing, both Piccolo and Gohan had successfully reached 100 times normal gravity. The strenuous training had taken a toll on the both of them, and even after such hard work, neither of them was willing to rest themselves. Piccolo wanted to make sure that he could handle whatever was thrown at him, especially this "Frieza" character that struck so much fear into the hearts of even the gods themselves. After his training, Piccolo had become somewhat complacent in his power, and arrogant to boot, even though he assessed that Gohan had become slightly stronger than him during the training.

With Gohan, there was a different motivation now. He knew that Goku was no match for him now, and although he still wanted to become stronger to crush Goku, he still had visions. He had kept these from Piccolo since the one in the cave, but Gohan felt like he was being tormented, and ever since he had grown stronger, he found that he was able to suppress them more easily. He wanted to know what they meant, and why he was having them. Most of them had to do with the bald one, Krillin, and himself, on planet Namek, and for the longest time Gohan pondered what these things could mean. Was it some sort of window into an alternate reality? That was the best thing that the child could come up with, and in any case, now he wanted to figure out why he was having them in the first place.

Ever since Gohan had stopped reporting them to him, Piccolo had assumed that Gohan's "visions" had perhaps ceased. During some nights, Gohan would wake up in a fit of rage, but usually attributed it to nightmares, Piccolo had his doubts. The whole situation scared him slightly, but knew that Gohan still remained firmly loyal to his master. The Namekian had several theories on what could be happening to the boy, such as hallucinations, realistic visions, things of that sort, but firmly believed that from what Gohan had told him, he was looking into some sort of alternate universe from their own. Now why Gohan experienced this was quite the mystery, and as much as Piccolo wanted to play it off as some sort of natural phenomena, he knew that answer was complete bull. He assessed that this either had to do with Gohan's extreme trauma, or from someone such as Kami or Korin. Although to Piccolo's knowledge, Kami did not have such powers, the guardian of Earth had surprised Piccolo as well as his father on multiple occasions, so perhaps it wasn't as farfetched as he originally believed.

This problem took a backseat, however, to the current situation.

"We should be arriving in about 2 hours." Bulma said, pressing a few buttons on the computer screen.

"Good. You stay at the ship with Lod while Gohan and I scout the planet." Piccolo explained, tossing a glance at Lod, who nodded in agreement. "Gohan, prepare yourself, I have a feeling this isn't going to be as easy as we expected it." The child nodded, grabbing something from the fridge. Although he would never admit it, Piccolo was actually rather excited; he would finally get to know his origins, where he his father had come from, his rightful planet. If Things went well here, Piccolo had contemplated on even staying rather than returning to Earth, and perhaps becoming the ruler of this planet instead. He didn't tell Gohan this, but if it did turn out that way, Piccolo wasn't sure whether he would allow Gohan to go back to Earth or not. However, he decided that he shouldn't put too much thought into it anyway incase he still wanted to conquer Earth, something that was far more likely to happen.

The last two hours on the ship were spent in relative silence, with Piccolo and Gohan meditating quietly for one last time before having to fight these new and unpredictable enemies. Bulma didn't know what to do exactly, she had already set the ship up so that everything was taken care of by the time they would land, so she had a few hours to spare, which she spent speaking with a few of the Saibamen.

* * *

"So…" She said, sitting on her bed, "What do you think that you all are gonna be doing on Namek?" Mkkyr ignored her, but the other three decided to speak.

"Not sure." Trokar said, fiddling with one of Bulma's shirts. "Trokar just want to show how strong he's become." Skriatch chuckled for some reason. Trokar responded to him in their native tongue, and they both god into a heated discussion. It seemed for a while they would begin to fight, but Lod settled the dispute himself with a few words that Bulma also couldn't understand.

"What was that?" Bulma asked them, still rather concerned.

"No worry, Skriatch just a…" Trokar thought for a second to find the right word "…stupid!" he finally said, sneering at Skriatch. Bulma sighed.

"If you all keep bickering like that, you guys are gonna make Piccolo angry." She explained as Lod nodded in agreement.

"Pah." Mkkyr spat out, obviously frustrated by all of the useless conversing. "Quiet, before I kill." As much as Bulma wanted to smack him, she knew that would be foolish, and so the last hour or so she decided to remain silent.

* * *

They finally had arrived on the planet. It was a luscious green world, surrounded with plant life and water. Just the sight of it made Piccolo's stomach turn.

'Not at all how I imagined.' Piccolo thought, looking through the window of the ship.

Bulma lowered the ships stairs to the planet.

Piccolo and Gohan took their first steps out.

And as soon as they set foot on the planet, they could fully feel some massive energies unlike any they had ever felt before. Piccolo had never before felt a fear as intense as this in his entire life.

* * *

**What is this power that Piccolo has felt? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	18. Chapter 18: Disclosure

**Chapter 18: Disclosure**

The energies that the two sensed after exiting the ship were more than Piccolo or Gohan could ever have imagined. Korin wasn't lying; Piccolo should not have overestimated his own power so much, because this one seemed to dwarf his own by comparison.

"M-master… do you feel that?" Gohan asked for reassurance, showing a rare sign of fear.

"Don't insult me; of course I feel it…" The fear subsided, and Piccolo now stood calm as ever, formulating a plan in his head. 'Obviously we can't simply kill Frieza like I thought that we could… no, we need the dragon balls…' Piccolo smirked, knowing that it was a great idea to bring Bulma and the radar along now. "Don't worry Gohan, just make sure to repress your power," The Namekian said to his trainee, "as long as they don't know were here, we have the element of surprise." The child nodded in agreement.

Piccolo headed back up into the ship, gathering a few of the Saibamen, namely Trokar, Skriatch and Mkkyr, deciding to leave behind Lod in case someone were to attack the ship.

"I'm going to need the radar now; I assume that you taught Gohan to use it?" Bulma nodded, handing the radar to the alien.

"It's not that difficult, just don't break it." She ordered, causing Piccolo to sneer.

"I'm not that much of an idiot." Bulma snickered a bit, Piccolo grunted and walked out of the ship with the Saibamen. "Oh wait!" The blue haired woman shouted "what about the scouter?"

Piccolo thought for a moment, but decided against it.

"Just keep it; it's pointless to me anyway." And with that the Namek left the ship.

* * *

It seemed as if Bulma had parked the ship in a prime hiding location between two mountains, an ingenious idea that Piccolo had to give her credit for. He decided that in order to combat this extremely powerful enemy, he and Gohan would have to make some sort of wish. What this wish would be, the Namekian had no idea, but he had some time to think about it.

A preliminary scan on the dragon radar showed that someone had gathered at least 3 of the dragon balls on this planet, and that there was one conveniently close to the their current location.

"Alright, lets head towards it, if we encounter anyone on the way who tries to stop us, we kill them." Piccolo explained to Gohan and the Saibamen, who all nodded in acknowledgement. 'good.' Piccolo thought, starting to get excited. 'I hope someone tries, I've been aching for a good kill.' All five of them blasted off towards the first dragon ball.

* * *

After getting closer, both Piccolo and Gohan could feel that there was some sort of battle going on ahead of them.

"Pick up the pace; we can't let any more dragon balls fall into Frieza's hands!" Piccolo yelled to the group.

Coming closer to the clash, Piccolo could discern that there was a purple alien fighting three green warriors, Namekians as he could tell. It was obvious that the Namekians were sorely outmatched, but the purple alien seemed to be toying with them. That was until Piccolo touched down.

The three warrior Nameks were panting in exhaustion, but still ready to fight to the death, however, the landing of the five new warriors drew the alien's attention away from the others. Seeing his gaze shift behind them, one of the Namekian warriors turned to see the others as well.

"Well well…" The purple alien said, smirking at the sight. "This is interesting, so you have backup eh?" He asked the three warriors, just as confused as the alien was.

"Wh-who are you?" One of the warriors managed to ask. Before anyone could answer, the purple alien ran up to the warrior and drove his fist through the Nameks chest, causing him to cry out in pain.

"I have new playthings now, the rest of you can die!" Gohan started forward a bit, but Piccolo stopped him. They all watched as the alien blasted both of the other warriors with a ki attack and then turned his attention to them. "So, you have Saibamen I see. I thought Vegeta took the last of those weaklings to Earth, but I guess there were a few more." Piccolo chuckled, this was going to be fun.

"What's your name?" Piccolo asked the alien, who replied in confusion;

"Cui, but I don't see why I need to tell you this when I'm just gonna kill you anyway." Cui smiled and jolted towards Piccolo at high speeds, but he wasn't nearly as quick as the Namekian. Piccolo dodged out of the way of the punch and left Cui totally addled. "W-what?" He said, looking around to find the Namekian. As he turned his head he was greeted by a brutal punch to the face that sent Cui flying.

"Th-this… can't be happening…" Cui managed to spit out, attempting to get up. Mkkyr walked over to the injured alien and smiled. "N-no, get away! Please! I'll join you!" Piccolo laughed.

"What would I need you for? You can obviously see that we have more than enough power." The evil Namekian scoffed.

"No, not power, information! I can tell you all about Frieza's army!" Cui shouted, bracing himself for an attack from the Saibamen.

"Mkkyr, stop." Piccolo said quickly. He thought for a moment, but came to a sensible conclusion. "Fine, you provide me with information, and I may let you live." Cui breathed a sigh of relief, staggering back up after the beating he had taken.

"Trokar, watch this filth while Gohan the Saibamen and I search aro-" Piccolo was interrupted by a soft, yet audible moan coming from one of the defeated Namekians. Piccolo stood over the wounded warrior and knelt down to speak. "Where is the dragon ball?" He asked in a firm tone.

"In th-the elder's home… he is… dead… help… the children…" The Namekian gave out his last breath, his eyes growing blank and cold. Piccolo had seen it many times before, but watching his own people die… it seemed a bit different to him. 'Peh, I'm going too soft.' Piccolo rose to his feet.

"Well that was informative." Piccolo said aloud. "Gohan, find the ball, we don't have all that much time." The boy nodded and dashed off into the village with the radar in hand. After Gohan had left, the evil Piccolo turned towards the injured Cui, who was leaning against one of the Namekians houses. He was still panting from exhaustion, but Piccolo could tell that he would be fine.

"So, Cui was it?" Piccolo asked. "Not that I care about you or your name. Tell me who this Frieza is." Cui nodded.

"Frieza… he's not someone you want to fuck with, let me tell you that. Last time there was a revolt, an entire race was wiped out." Cui said, trying to get his breath back. "No one knows his full power, but I do know that he's usually around 500,000, stronger than anyone I know of."

"And what about his army?" Piccolo asked, noting the scouter on Cui's face was broken.

"A bunch of low levels, weaklings." Cui stated, shaking his head. "The only ones of note are Zarbon and Dodoria. Zarbon is… well, a pretty boy, but his power level is at least 24,000. Dodoria is the pink fat ass who thinks he's hot shit, his power is around 22,000."

"Hmm, I have no idea what my power level is, so I'll have to gauge it off of you. What is your power level?" Piccolo questioned.

"Around 18,000 I'd say." Cui proclaimed. Piccolo thought for a moment and came to a conclusion.

"Guessing from what you've told me, I'd say that Zarbon and Dodoria will be no problem. Is there anyone else I should be told of?" Piccolo said, staring Cui down to intimidate him.

"Well…" Cui started, not sure if he should indulge this Namekian. However, Piccolo's stare got to him, and Cui broke down. "Frieza ordered the Ginyu force to Namek a while ago; they should be here any time now." Cui sighed and shook his head. "I can't believe I'm betraying Lord Frieza like this, I'm dead no matter what happens…"

"Better to be dead later then dead now." Piccolo smirked. "Now how powerful are these people?" Piccolo asked as Gohan returned with a rather large dragon ball.

"Stronger than Zarbon and Dodoria, there are five of them in total, and I think I heard someone say that the captain topped out at 120,000." Cui explained. Piccolo shook his head.

"Master, we should get moving, the next dragon ball is showing up on the radar." Gohan explained, Piccolo nodded in agreement.

"Cui, do you know how to hide your power level?" Piccolo asked.

"No, but why would I need to do that?" The purple alien asked.

"Because otherwise we're all targets for anyone who has a scouter." Piccolo explained, Cui shouted a bit in excitement.

"That's great, because all of the scouters on this planet are toast now that you destroyed mine. That's why the Ginyu force was sent, to bring replacement scouters!"

"Yeah, well then as soon as those Ginyu's show up then what?" Piccolo asked harshly.

"I-I can learn, just teach me!" Cui said, trying to walk forward but nearly collapsing instead.

"Hah, why should I waste my time teaching you anything." The evil Namekian said as he raised his palm towards Cui.

"N-no! But I can tell you so much mor-" Cui's entire body was engulfed in a bright blue light, screaming could be heard for only a moment, and then it was gone. Piccolo looked around the village once more, and finally decided to take off.

"Alright, everyone follow Gohan." Piccolo said to the Saibamen, although something had caught his eye. There was someone hiding behind a building, and Piccolo could tell that it was a small Namekian child. "What do you want?" Piccolo asked the child, who poked his head out slightly.

As the child started towards Piccolo, he said; "S-sir, my name is Gon, and I-"

"I don't care who you are, we're on a tight schedule and we can't afford to bring along anyone else, so move along kid." Piccolo said, starting to fly up into the air.

"B-but I can take you to Guru!" Gon shouted towards the group. The words seemed familiar to Piccolo somehow, as if he had heard of it before.

"Who is this Guru?" Piccolo asked, returning to the ground.

* * *

"One thousand nine hundred ninety nine…" Goku grunted. "Two thousand!" The Sayian rose to his feet, counting out how many senzu beans that he had left and thanking Kami that Korin had the good sense to hold out for Goku when he was ready to head to Namek. Everyone loved the idea of sending Goku to Namek with Piccolo and Gohan, everyone except for Korin and Kami, who knew that there would be a conflict, but they could see no way out of it. Piccolo, Gohan and Goku would have to come up with a way to destroy Frieza, and whatever came after that wouldn't matter as long as Earth was safe.

Goku had already mastered 100 times normal gravity on his fourth day on the ship, and so he had a regular training regimen already set up. He hadn't been himself lately, as everyone could already tell, and if anyone had told him that Chi-Chi was dead, he might have snapped. But, now that he was in regular training, Goku could feel that a part of him was returning. No doubt he still felt vengeance in his heart, but it was wearing away slowly as the days went by, and Goku even caught himself smiling more than once out of sheer happiness of his growth in strength.

However, he could already tell that Piccolo had changed him. The incorruptible pure Goku was no more; the son of his most dangerous adversary had shown that even the purest heart could be diluted when someone important was on the line. What Piccolo had done was unforgivable in Goku's eyes, not only had he stolen Gohan away from his father, but he had turned his own son against him. There was nothing to do for Gohan now except get him back and hopefully convince him that what Piccolo told him was all wrong.

Goku had also been doing some thinking. Whilst his mind had cleared itself further, he could tell that simply killing Piccolo would not solve any problem, and that he needed the dragon balls to bring back his friends. And so, Goku had told himself that when he came to the planet, he wouldn't kill Piccolo, but rather he would wait till they were back on Earth to try something. A plan he had cooked up with a close friend back on Earth. It was a long shot, but he thought that it may just work after all.

Goku was turning the settings down on the ship when he heard the voice of King Kai.

"Goku, I can sense that you've really calmed down with the training you've been doing to fight Frieza, guess you 'chilled' out huh?" King Kai began chuckling to himself, but Goku only shook his head.

"Yeah, yeah, look, I'm only gonna cooperate until we get back to Earth, then he's in my court." Goku smirked. King Kai looked disappointed, but Goku couldn't see.

"Well Goku, just remember what I told you, you need to get the dragon balls first, if you try to fight Frieza before making a wish you will be destroyed. Do you understand?"

"Yes King Kai, but I mean, I really want to test myself out before giving myself an unfair wish advantage!" The Saiyan said, grinning and clenching his fists tightly.

"No Goku! I'm glad to see you excited about fighting, but this guy is on a whole different level! If I we-"

"Oh sorry King Kai, gotta get back to training, catch me another time!" Goku said, cutting off the telekinetic signal to the Kai, who stood baffled.

* * *

"Interesting…" Piccolo said, turning to look at his entourage of Gohan and the Saibamen. "And you say that he also has a dragon ball with him?" Gon nodded. "Well…" Piccolo sighed, clenching his fists. "If what you say is true, we might actually stand a chance against this Frieza character. Lead on Gon, but if this turns out to be something else, I won't hesitate to end you." Gon gulped and rose off the ground.

"Master, let me take ball back to ship." Skriatch asked.

"No, Mkkyr, you take the ball back. I have a feeling I'll need my most powerful minions when this Ginyu force shows up." Mkkyr scoffed, but knowing his place he took the ball from Gohan and sped off towards the ships location.

"Follow me, I remember where Guru is from when my elder taught us the way." Gon took off, and the four fighters followed after him.

Piccolo had a feeling that Guru was not going to enjoy Piccolo's company.

* * *

**Who exactly is this Guru? And how powerful are these new foes? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	19. Chapter 19: Saibamen Fury

**Chapter 19: Saibamen Fury**

The two Namekians looked out towards the vast lands of planet Namek.

Guru sighed, causing Nail to turn towards his master.

"What is it Guru?" He asked, walking to the Elder's side.

"I feel… Misguided souls." Guru said, shaking his head in disappointment. Nail looked back outside and saw a group approaching in the distance.

"They're almost here; I'll go to greet them." Nail said, heading out the door to the landing.

"Wait; do not try to fight them if they attempt any confrontation." Guru ordered, with Nail nodding back. The door slid shut and Nail patiently awaited the arrival of the group of powerful individuals.

* * *

Back on the ship, Bulma rested her head on the table of the dining room, not knowing what to do to keep herself occupied. She looked around once and saw Lod leaning against a wall, seemingly resting if that's what Saibamen did… Then she saw the scouter that Piccolo had given back resting on the counter of the kitchen. She thought for a moment, and her curiosity got the better of her.

"Hey, Lod!" She said, getting up from her chair as Lod looked up towards Bulma.

Bulma headed towards the scouter and said: "I want to know how powerful you are, why don't we get outside and I'll check with this!" She said, holding up the scouter.

Lod agreed, and the two headed out of the ship.

"Alright, Power up as much as you can and I'll see what number comes up." Bulma said, fastening the scouter to her face as Lod nodded in agreement. "Go!" She said after she had finished, with Lod powering up to his maximum Potential. Bulma was taken aback by the sheer power this little alien had, seeing the numbers rise from 1000, to 1500, to over 2000. Obviously he wasn't as strong as the other Saibamen, but she thought he was still powerful enough to protect her.

"Wow…" Bulma exclaimed in astonishment as Lod's power level jumped past 5000, and was still rising. It began to slow after 6000, and finally topped off at 6400. "You're even stronger than that dummy that Gohan Killed!" Bulma said in excitement, Lod smirking slightly in appreciation. "Let's get back inside, I'll fix us up something to eat."

Lod shook his head "I don't eat…"

* * *

Piccolo and the rest of the group finally touched down on the landing of Guru's hut. Nail took one look at Piccolo and already knew he was bad news.

"Gon, I'm glad you're alive." Nail smiled, patting him on the head and sending him to Guru. "What do you want? I haven't seen you before, were you an independent Namek?" Nail asked Piccolo, who grunted.

"It doesn't matter where I come from; show me to your elder before I lose my patience." Piccolo growled, causing Nail to sneer.

"What do you think gives you the right to…"

"Nail…" Nail turned to look as Guru interrupted "Let them inside, I must speak with the strange Namekian."

Nail looked back at Piccolo and dissolved his sneer, walking back into Guru's hut. "Follow me inside." He said begrudgingly.

As everyone filled up the hut, Guru took a long look at Piccolo, who became increasingly agitated with every passing moment.

"Tell me, strange one, where you come from." Guru asked Piccolo in a gentle tone. Piccolo chuckled.

"Does that even matter right now?" Piccolo retorted, causing Nail to clench his fists.

"You have no reason to disrespect Guru, I suggest you show a little more…"

"Enough, Nail." Guru ordered, Nail sighed in resignation. "Let the strange Namekian speak. What is it you wish to know from me?"

Piccolo grinned.

"From what your little friend has told me…" Piccolo said, tilting his head towards Gon "you can unlock someone's hidden potential. That's what I want. That and your dragon ball, give me those two things and I'll be on my way."

The room became exceptionally quiet.

Nail couldn't take it anymore.

"Why should we help them Guru? You said yourself that they were impure!"

Guru was still in thought however, contemplating nothing, and everything, all at once.

Silence once again filled the room, this time with Piccolo growing impatient.

"Answer his question." Piccolo said, addressing Nails question to Guru.

Finally, Guru spoke.

"I expect that you know of this Frieza." Guru said, Piccolo nodded. "He is… far too powerful for anyone to normally handle. Nail is the most powerful of our people, and yet he cannot even hope to defeat him." Nail shook his head in disgrace. Guru sighed a deep long breath, and then spoke once more. "I can tell already that all of your souls are corrupt." Guru explained to the group, Gohan seemed to have become uncomfortable. "However, you are the last hope of the Namekian race. I will unlock your power, but I can only do this to two of your group, or my power will be completely diminished."

Piccolo laughed "You're smart, but are you wise?" The evil Namekian taunted, making Nail even angrier.

"I've had just abo-"Nail was once again cut off by a power that most of the warriors in the room could sense.

"Master, who is that?" Gohan asked, trying to gauge how powerful the enemy was compared to himself.

"I'm not sure. Let's have the Saibamen kill them so that we can get on with this." Piccolo and the rest of the group headed outside and stared up at the sky, awaiting the newcomer.

* * *

Mkkyr finally made it back to the ship and place the dragon ball just inside of the vessel.

The Saibamen looked around the inside of the ship, feeling a strange sensation rush over him. It was as if he felt a primal instinct reforming within him.

He hadn't killed in so long, his mind was slowly degrading.

Mkkyr fell to his knees and clenched his fists.

He suddenly felt an urge inside of him.

There was only one way to satisfy it.

Bulma and Lod were playing a game of go fish when Mkkyr busted. Bulma gasped and nearly fell off her chair when she saw the look on his face. It was full of malice and contempt. Lod quickly jumped in front of Bulma and took a fighting stance.

"Outside, now." Lod said, with Mkkyr smirking and acknowledging the order.

The two now stood across each other, Lod with a deadly serious face and Mkkyr with bloodthirsty eyes. He had felt it before, but never this strongly. He needed to kill; it was a part of him.

"I kill both? No, beat you, kill human." Mkkyr laughed, bearing his claws and showing his teeth.

"We'll see." Lod said, jumping at his opponent.

* * *

"Well look who we have here? I was just checking out the area when I see this nice little hut in the distance; thought I might take a peek, destroy it a little." Laughed the pink blob as he touched down on the landing. "Guess I should take out the trash huh?" He smirked, looking around at all of the people he would soon slaughter.

"Hmmph, you must be Dodoria." Piccolo grinned. Dodoria looked at the Namekian with an inquisitive look.

"How do you…" The look vanished quickly. "Ahh whatever, you're all dead anyway, who wants to go first?" Dodoria asked sadistically, with Trokar stepping forward.

The pink alien took one look and laughed.

"Aww, little Saibamen wants to play? Fine, who wants to take bets on how quick I kill this little guy? You don't st- UGH" Dodoria grunted as he was met with a fist to the stomach. Trokar had struck the first blow, and Dodoria had completely dissipated his relaxed demeanor.

"You son of a bitch!" He yelled as he tried to punch Trokar, but the Saibamen quickly jolted out of the way of the punch. Trokar was now a good 20 yards away from the rest of the group in the air, waiting for Dodoria to make the next move.

"I bet you think you're better than me cuz you got that sucker punch in huh? Well guess again!" Dodoria growled as he sped towards Trokar. Dodoria threw a nasty punch that would have done significant damage had Trokar not dodged it just in time, and the Saibamen returned the blow with an uppercut that Dodoria somehow managed to block.

Dodoria flew back and the two stared at each other for a moment.

* * *

Lod and Mkkyr exchanged blows, both blocking and dodging most of them. It was clear that the two were nearly evenly matched, and Bulma hoped that Lod could pull out a victory somehow.

Mkkyr jumped back and rammed right into Lod's chest, almost knocking the wind out of the Saibamen. Lod quickly recovered and flew back as well, dashing forward and delivering a powerful kick to Mkkyr which Mkkyr had tried to block, to no avail. Mkkyr crashed into the Earth and slowly rose, only to be met with Lod's fist.

Lod unleashed a flurry of punches to Mkkyr's face, who tried to get out of the hold by kicking Lod in the back.

Lod cried out in pain and Mkkyr scratched Lod's face with his claws, then he clenched his fists into a ball and smashed them into Lod's stomach, sending the Saibamen flying back.

Lod skidded across the land until he came to a halt, Mkkyr took advantage of this and rushed towards the injured Lod, planning to slam his elbow into Lod's stomach to incapacitate him.

Lod rolled to the side just in time and got back up, panting from the assault.

"Stupid Lod!" Mkkyr screamed in a bloodthirsty rage, rushing at Lod with as much speed as he could muster. Lod blocked the initial assault, but was blown away by Mkkyr's next punch which launched Lod into the side of the mountain.

Bulma looked in horror as Mkkyr slowly turned his gaze towards her.

"Die!" Mkkyr shouted, running at Bulma full speed.

"Daddy… I'm so sorry I couldn't make it!" Bulma screamed, bracing herself for death.

The killing blow was never dealt; Mkkyr was distracted by something in the sky.

* * *

Gohan stared up at the two fighters, locked onto each other's gazes, trying to psych the other out. He wanted to help Trokar desperately, but held back for now. He truly wished to see how well Trokar could do against such an opponent.

Dodoria broke the staring contest and rushed Trokar with great speed, taking the Saibamen by surprise. Trokar attempted to block the punch, but was sent flying backwards a few yards.

Trokar quickly recovered in the air and counterattacked, and the two were quickly thrown into a flurry of punches and kicks.

Dodoria and Trokar blacked and dodged most of them, and the fighting seemed to go on for a long while. However, after some time had passed, it was obvious that Dodoria had the upper hand.

Trokar grew tired with every punch, and finally Frieza's minion took advantage of that by blocking every one of Trokars assaults.

The Saibamen knew what was happening however, and decided to use his secret weapon.

Trokar flew back a few yards, panting, but with a smile on his face.

"You fight good." The Saibamen said, collecting energy in both of his hands. "But me better!" Trokar's hands erupted into bright green balls of ki, surprising Dodoria greatly, but only for a moment. "Saibassault!" Trokar shouted, rushing at Dodoria as fast as he could.

Dodoria's eyes grew wide in astonishment, he was expecting an energy attack, but it seemed as if he was about to get more than he bargained for.

"The hell are you doing!" The pink warrior shouted, getting into a defensive stance with his arms guarding his face. Trokar rammed his energy powered fists into Dodoria's arms, nearly breaking them. After each strike, Dodoria shouted in more and more pain.

"I'm finishing this!" Dodoria shouted, head-butting Trokar back a few feet and charging a beam in his mouth.

A pink beam of ki emitted from his lips and blasted the off-guard Saibamen.

Trokar was blown down to the ground far below where none of the other fighters could see, and Dodoria chuckled at his victory. Gohan growled in frustration and anger. The pink warrior landed back on the landing strip.

"Pathetic Saibamen, we use them as practice fodder in Frieza's army." Laughed Dodoria, enraging Gohan even further. "Just as well, he was no match for me anyw-" A blast of ki shut Dodoria up, nailing him in the side and making him fly back a few meters. Everyone looked over and saw a completely enraged, yet totally battered and exhausted Trokar in mid-flight, his hand outstretched. After Dodoria recovered, he looked over at the Saibamen in complete surprise.

"No one should have survived that!" Dodoria shouted at Trokar, who seemed to ignore Dodoria's words. Gohan was more motivated now than ever, if he didn't fight Dodoria now, Trokar would die. The small boy began to power up, but Piccolo quickly stopped him.

"This is his fight." Piccolo said, grabbing Gohan firmly by the shoulder. "To prove his worth."

While Gohan didn't like it, he had to accept it.

Dodoria rushed the weakened Saibamen once again.

* * *

Bulma looked up to the sky as well, finding a small dot in the sky and wondering what it was.

Mkkyr simply looked astonished, whatever it was it seemed to interest him greatly.

Bulma didn't want to, but her curiosity grew too great, and she finally asked; "What are you looking at?"

Mkkyr didn't respond at all, but kept staring.

"It… I want kill." Mkkyr said, smiling now. The dot approached at a blistering pace, and finally it reached a distance where Bulma could discern what exactly was approaching. It was humanoid.

"Help!" Bulma screeched, angering Mkkyr greatly.

"After him, you die." The Saibamen said, powering up once more as the soldier landed down on the ground.

He looked at Bulma one moment and then looked at Mkkyr, who seemed ready to attack.

"I am a soldier from the army of Frieza. By order of Frieza himself, every-" Mkkyr rushed the soldier before he knew what was happening, but somehow he was able to pull off a block.

"Get off me you monster!" The soldier shouted, punching Mkkyr in the face, sending him back a few feet. At this time, Lod finally regained consciousness and found a perfect opportunity to take Mkkyr down. The soldier was in a losing battle, but Mkkyr played around with him anyway, slashing at the soldiers face a few times to draw blood.

Although the soldier got a few solid hits on Mkkyr, there was nothing he could do, and Mkkyr finally decided to end their fight.

The sadistic Saibamen bit through the soldier's unprotected neck, spraying blood all over Mkkyrs face. Then the Saibamen began to slash at the soldier's stomach.

Unrecognizable screams of agony could be heard by the soldier while Mkkyr ripped his body apart, all while laughing.

Lod finally made his move.

He pounced on Mkkyr, taking him completely by surprise, and taking no time at all he clawed Mkkyr's eyes out of their sockets.

Now the screams of Mkkyr and the soldier filled the air, with Bulma covering her eyes by the side of the mountain where Lod had regained consciousness.

Lod quickly ended the soldiers life, putting him out of his misery, and then turned his attention to the screaming Mkkyr.

Lod only closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment.

Mkkyr screeched something at Lod in the Saibamen language, which Bulma could not understand.

Lod replied thusly; "No, you live blind, I won't kill you." Lod then crushed Mkkyrs eyes, much to Bulmas disgust.

* * *

Dodoria landed a solid punch to Trokar's face, sending the Saibamen back quite a way. However, Trokar recovered in the air launched another ki attack at Dodoria, who blocked it with his arms.

"You ain't gonna beat me you pathetic freak, I bet you're all outa energy huh?" Dodoria smirked, launching himself at Trokar again. This time Trokar wasn't going to mess around."

"Fuck you!" Trokar screamed as he launched a massive ki attack at Dodoria's face, who had absolutely no time to respond. Dodoria screamed in pain as he was sent flying backwards, his face badly scorched and his pride in shambles.

"You prick! I'll kill you!" The pink warrior blasted another beam of ki at Trokar, who avoided it barely and sped towards his foe. He knew that Dodoria's eyes were still adjusting, and aimed to take advantage of that.

In a display of power and rage, Trokar grabbed Dodoria's head and began crushing it with all of his might. Extremely afraid, Dodoria began blasting random ki attacks from his mouth and flying around, trying to get Trokar off of his head.

This didn't work, and finally the pain was too excruciating to bear. Dodoria couldn't do anything.

Using all of his might, Trokar clamped his hands as tight as possible.

Brain matter flew around in the sky, and blood drenched the Saibamen.

Gohan sighed in relief, and Piccolo chuckled.

"What a pathetic waste of life." Piccolo smiled.

"Unnecessary…" Skriatch scoffed.

The group went back into Guru's hut.

"That… was impressive." Nail said, complimenting Trokar on his victory. Trokar was still too enraged to speak.

"So, we protected you once, now unlock our powers so that we may save your people. You owe us this much." Piccolo sneered.

"I could have easily killed him, what makes you think that w-"

"Nail, that is enough!" Guru shouted, Nail nodded his head and looked towards the ground. "I do not like this idea either, but we have little choice. This is what we can do, to save Namek and her people. I shall grant you and another warrior of your choosing my blessing to unlock your hidden potential."

"Finally." Piccolo said, stepping forward a bit, but something stopped him. "Wait… Gohan, you go first." Gohan tilted his head slightly, but did not question his master. The boy walked up to Guru.

"I will now unlock your hidden potential, use it well young one, for you are not yet completely corrupted by evil." Guru placed his hand on Gohan's head and used a great deal of energy. The aura around Gohan began to increase in size, and soon Gohan could feel a steep rise in his power.

Piccolo stepped back in complete astonishment, whatever Guru was doing, he had made Gohan's power skyrocket.

"This is… unreal!" Piccolo said, clenching his fists in excitement. Gohan saw a brief glimpse of something in his mind... it was Goku, and he was fighting a purple monster with horns... then the vision was gone.

The unlocking was complete, and Gohan was now much more powerful than before. The boy walked towards his master and marveled in his newfound power, wondering how strong he truly was now. Piccolo stepped up to the plate, and Guru spoke to him as he did Gohan.

"I do this not for you, but for my people. I can sense that you are no Namek, but a demon." Piccolo smiled at this.

"I'm just carrying on my legacy." Guru placed his hand on Piccolo's head and began unlocking his hidden potential as well.

However, while Piccolo was getting stronger by the second, everyone else could feel five huge powers crashing down to the planet.

* * *

**With this newfound power, will Piccolo be able defeat the mighty Ginyu Force? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	20. Chapter 20: Decimation

**Chapter 20: Decimation**

Five mercenaries stepped out of their ships. Almost instinctively, they turned on their scouters to scout out the planet of any traces of power, and they were absolutely floored by what they found. Frieza himself gave off the most power, but there was someone out there… someone extremely powerful, and getting even more powerful by the second.

"C-captn', who the hell is that?" Jeice asked in horror as he stepped back, not knowing what to make of the situation.

"I'm… not sure, but his power is astounding." Captain Ginyu stated, staring in amazement at his scouter. The rest of the men could say nothing as they saw the power on the scouters rising exponentially. After a few moments, the power stopped rising, and ultimately disappeared completely.

All five of the Ginyu force looked around at each other, obviously confused as to what the hell had just happened.

"It… just topped out at 250,000 Captain, that's even stronger than-"

"Shut up Guldo, it was just a malfunction on the scouters, I'm sure…" Ginyu said, trying to convince himself. "Otherwise it wouldn't have just disappeared like that." He turned to his men who all stood to attention.

"Of course, sorry Captain." Guldo apologized, looking towards the ground. Ginyu located Frieza's location on by his power, and smirked.

"Let's go meet with Lord Frieza, shall we?" Ginyu said, his men all nodding in agreement.

* * *

Piccolo looked down towards his hands, amazed at his newfound powers. How had such a simple ability raised his power so much? It made no sense, but Piccolo accepted it anyway, and after he was done with being amazed, he quickly felt the 5 large powers that the others in the room were sensing.

"Guru, do… do you feel that?" Nail asked, looking up towards his elder. Guru sighed in exhaustion, nodding.

"They are malicious, and must be dealt with before you can fight the ultimate power. The first test of your new powers." Guru claimed, Piccolo scoffed.

"They may be strong, but they aren't even a match for me." Nail looked away in disgust.

"Master, should we go?" Gohan asked, itching for a fight. Piccolo looked up towards Guru once more.

"That Dragonball, give it to me." Nail's eyes grew wide with disbelief.

"S-such a disrespectful request, do you even realize-" Nail didn't finish his sentence out of complete disbelief once more, as he saw Guru hand the Dragonball directly to the evil Namekian. "Guru! What do you-"

"It is pointless to keep it from them, they do not aim to destroy our people, which is more than I can say for the evil power threatening to destroy our planet." Guru sighed in anguish. "I choose… the lesser of the two evils." Piccolo smirked, shaking his head.

"I don't think you quite understand who you're dealing with…" Piccolo turned around and handed the Dragonball to Skriatch. "Take this back to the ship, report directly to me afterwards." Skriatch nodded and blasted off towards the ship.

The others began to walk out of the grand elder's home, but they were stopped just before they could exit.

"You, boy." Guru said, addressing Gohan, who didn't even turn around. "I can feel your heart, you do not belong with this demon." The small Saiyan just shook his head, and Piccolo did not respond. The group then left the area, leaving Gon behind.

Nail clenched his fists in sheer anger.

"I should have killed him as soon as I saw him…" Guru shook his head in disagreement.

"One day you may understand why I did what I did. Go, fight with these warriors, and help them defeat Frieza."

"B-but what about you Guru? Someone needs to guard you!" Nail exclaimed, not wanting to help the demon Namekian.

"Do not worry about me Nail, I have Gon with me, and no one shall be able to trace my power." Guru said, looking towards Gon with a smile.

"Th-thank you…" Gon spoke up, smiling back.

"Guru…" Nail looked away, obviously saddened by this request.

"You are the strongest of our people, you must fulfill your duty. Please Nail, help these people." Guru looked back towards Nail, his voice calm and collected as always.

"I…" Nail hesitated for a moment, but finally answered his elder. "As you wish. Be well, elder, I will be back when Frieza has been defeated." Nail nodded towards Guru, then Gon, and started out towards the door. He stopped before exiting. "Why… why has the universe forsaken us?" Nail would find no answer from neither Guru nor Gon, and after a long silence, he exited.

* * *

"My lord, here are your scouters." Ginyu said, bowing before his master.

"Excellent, thank you Ginyu, but… perhaps you could take it a bit more lightly on the posing next time? I really don't have all the time in the world you know." Frieza smirked, "or, not yet at least." Both Frieza and Zarbon took out their scouters, and Zarbon grabbed Dodoria's as well.

Ginyu rose and tossed the box to Jeice "Sorry lord Frieza, but that's just who we are." Ginyu joked, the rest of his men were half frightened and half amused. Ginyu looked towards Frieza's side and greeted the flamboyant warrior. "Hello Zarbon, it's been a while." Zarbon looked towards Ginyu with uneasiness; obviously the two were distant with each other.

"Captain Ginyu, always a pleasure." Zarbon claimed, almost sarcastically.

"Ey Captn', you figure he's still mad about that time on Kardon?" Jeice whispered to the captain, who shook his head.

"Ginyu," Frieza said, fastening his scouter to his face "Did you happen to detect Dodoria on your scouter? I sent him off a while ago and he hasn't reported back."

"I'll check for you lord Frieza." Recoome said, pushing a button on his scouter. Recoome scanned the area for any power levels, but found none that matched up with Dodoria's level. "Sorry, either he's dead, or my scouter is busted." Frieza sighed and shook his head.

"This isn't good, I've lost communication with Cui, and now Dodoria might be dead." The tyrant turned and began to pace. "Someone is killing my men, and undoubtedly they are the pests from Earth who killed Vegeta." He then turned to face the Ginyu Squad.

"Find the nearest Dragonball, bring it to me as quickly as possible." Frieza said, Ginyu nodded.

"Of course, my scouter tells me that there are two large populations of Namekians left." The captain turned to his men "Burter and Racoome will head towards the farthest village while Jeice, Guldo and I will make our way to the closer one." Burter smirked at his duty.

"Of course Captain, I am the fastest being in the universe after all." Burter proclaimed, causing Frieza to roll his eyes. "Better not slow me down Recoome, first one to the village buys lunch!" With that, Burter was off, leaving Recoome in a daze.

"Aww damn, not this shit again! Get back here you cheater!" Recoome shouted, dashing off in the direction that Burter charged.

After they had all watched the two fly off into the distance, Ginyu decided to indulge some information to Frieza.

"Lord Frieza… I did happen to notice two small power levels in the distance before we landed. I marked to location on my scouter, perhaps you should send someone to investigate." If Frieza had eyebrows, he would have raised one.

"Zarbon, download the location to your scouter and check it out. I have some business to attend to so I won't be accompanying you." Frieza turned and walked towards his ship.

"As you wish lord Frieza." Zarbon pressed a button on his scouter the same time that Ginyu did. A few moments passed and Zarbon nodded. "Alright, it's done." They released the buttons. Ginyu turned around with his men but stopped for a moment and looked behind him.

"Lighten up Zarbon, maybe after this incident I'll let you onto the team." Ginyu chuckled as he blasted off, leaving Zarbon absolutely furious.

"Th-that… Buffoon! How dare he!" Zarbon shouted quietly to himself, clenching his fist. He shook his head and calmed down a bit. Zarbon pressed a button on his scouter and blasted off in the direction that Ginyu had marked for him.

* * *

Piccolo, Gohan and Trokar stopped in mid flight. The Powers that they had felt split, with two large powers heading to the east and a very large power moving to the north, with a significantly smaller power heading west.

"What should we do master?" Gohan asked. Piccolo estimated the following powers and came up a quick plan.

"The two large powers, Gohan, you and Trokar head that way to deal with them." Piccolo grinned "I'll take care of the larger power."

"But what about the one heading towards the ship?" Gohan asked, wondering what his master was thinking.

"Mkkyr and Lod should be able to take care of themselves. Lets go."

Gohan nodded and blasted off with Trokar, but just as Piccolo was about to head off, Nail finally caught up with him.

"Wait!" Nail yelled, stopping his flight next to the evil Namekian. "Guru has sent me to help you." The warrior begrudgingly admitted. Piccolo merely chuckled.

"What makes you think I need your help?" Piccolo asked, turning to look at Nail.

"I don't even want to help you, but Guru begged me, and so I'll do whatever I can to protect this planet and it's people." Nail said, fists clenched and staring right at Piccolo. The demon looked back towards the direction of the large power.

"Don't fall behind, I might actually be able to use you as a meat shield." As he blasted off, Nail could hear Piccolo laugh.

'Damn it Guru… this is a mistake…" Nail followed soon after, making sure not to lose an inch on Piccolo.

* * *

"Excited!" Trokar yelled to Gohan, who was intently focusing in on the powers ahead of him.

"Good, but I don't know if you'll stand a chance. These powers are the greater than yours." Gohan proclaimed, still staring ahead. "I don't want you to do anything foolish." Trokar nodded, and tried to feel the powers ahead. Although he had learned much from Gohan and Piccolo, sensing power was something that still eluded him for some reason.

Despite Gohan's expression of apathy, the boy was actually extremely excited to test out his newfound power. Ever since Vegeta he had not had a worthy opponent to fight, and now that this opportunity presented itself, Gohan was ecstatic. He would finally be able to prove himself, as he had failed to do against Vegeta.

"They're close, I can feel it." Gohan said as he spotted a Namekian village being razed. Fires spread across the small town, and two figures could be seen firing ki into the buildings. Gohan soon sped up, intending to take them by surprise.

Trokar couldn't keep up with Gohan at this point, and tried in vain to reach him. Gohan was blasting towards these two with reckless abandon, and he would soon reach impact.

"Say hello to Vegeta!" Gohan screamed as he slammed into the large red haired one, sending him hurtling down to the Earth. With Recoome incapacitated for the moment, Burter turned to face this small opponent.

"W-what the fuck?" Burter spat out, completely dumbfounded. The scouters hadn't been quick enough to catch this little demon. As Gohan recoiled, he turned to face Burter and smiled.

"Prepare yourself!" The child screamed as he launched a merciless assault against the blue alien, who mounted a lack luster assault due to his mass confusion. Gohan landed a solid blow on Burter's chest, sending him flying back in the air a few yards.

"Gah! What the hell is this!" Burter screamed, regaining balance and clicking the button on his scouter. The numbers shot up as Gohan began to charge at Burter once again. "N-no… that's not possible!" He screamed as the young Saiyan landed a kick on Burter's defending arms. The Blue alien could barely hold his ground, and his arms were bruised and nearly broken. He screamed in pain as Gohan flew back a few feet and shook his head.

"I overestimated you." Gohan said, disappointed. Trokar watched on and kept an eye on the other unconscious warrior.

"Who are you!" Burter shouted towards the child, who only stared at him. "Why are you so strong? It doesn't make sense!"

Gohan only looked at the blue alien.

Silence took over the scene, and Burter was holding his right arm which was in the most pain. Down below, the unconscious Recoome started to come to.

"Gohan, other figher up!" Trokar shouted. Gohan looked towards the fighters energy to find him right behind.

"You little punk!" Recoome shouted as he punched Gohan right in the face, blasting the young boy back towards Burter, who quickly kicked the boy down towards the ground. Recoome pursued quickly, but Gohan regained balance and blasted off before the large Ginyu squad member could reach him. Both Recoome and Burter searched around for the child, but to no avail, it was as if Gohan had disappeared.

Recoome began to laugh.

"The little brat could only beat me with a surprise attack eh?" Burter stayed on the alert, he had seen the boy's power level.

"I don't think you understand Recoome, his power level is-Gah!" Burter was cut off by a swift kick to the back, launching him towards the ground and making his scouter fly off of his face. Recoome quickly jolted towards the child, throwing his fists angrily with Gohan dodging them all.

"Cmon twerp! Let me hit you!" Recoome shouted in rage. He had never seen someone so powerful or fast in his entire life.

Suddenly Gohan stopped dodging and was completely still, this cause Recoome to back up in shock.

"Go ahead." Gohan smirked, letting his guard down. Recoome smiled and opened his mouth wide.

"ERASER GUN!" He screamed, firing his blast at Gohan who stayed completely still.

The blast collided with Gohan, a bright white light consumed him. Recoome wasn't content however, and decided to check his scouter, but when he went to click the button, he found that his scouter was gone.

"Aww damnit!" Recoome shouted. "The Captain is gonna let me have it this time…" Recoome said as he watched the smoke from his attack dissipate. "Well, no one could have sur-" Recoome shot back in complete horror as he saw a bright light coming through the smoke.

"My turn!" Gohan screamed "Masenko!" The energy ball flew through the sky towards Recoome, who barely had any time to react.

"Shit!" He screamed as the blast collided with his hands, which he had put up to defend his torso.

A sharp crack could be heard coming from Recoome's arms.

"Aghhhh!" The soldier screamed, he had succeeded in deflecting the energy ball, but at the cost of breaking both of his arms. His appendages fell to his sides, and he was unable to move them, too injured to fight, he dropped to the ground.

By that time Burter had finally gotten up, and instead of suicide he opted to flee.

"Gohan, Blue one running away!" Trokar pointed towards Burter, who was using all of his energy to try to get back to Freiza's ship.

"Don't worry about him." Gohan ordered, "We've got to grab the Dragonball." Trokar nodded and they both quickly searched around for any remaining survivors.

* * *

Piccolo and Nail landed down next to the charred remains of a Namekian village.

"I… was too late…" Nail said, tears almost in his eyes.

"No, they're still here." Piccolo claimed, sensing the 3 powers in the area. They were all gathered in one house, presumably the one that housed the Dragonball. Piccolo began to walk towards the house, but before he could reach it the door began to open.

"That was just too easy cap'n!" Someone said from behind the opening door. As the door finally completely opened, Piccolo could see that there was a purple, red and green alien standing in front of him, with the purple one holding a Namekian warrior by his wrist.

"You!" Nail shouted at the warriors, who stared at the two Namekians for a moment.

"I thought we killed them all Jeice, apparently you missed few." Ginyu said, scolding his underling and throwing the Namekian he was holding to the side. Jeice, who was holding one of the Dragonballs, only looked away. "No matter, we must bring this ball to Lord Frieza. Guldo, take care of the stragglers, Jeice and I have some business to take care of." They all walked out of the house.

"You fools!" Nail shouted, "Do you think I would just let you go so easily?" All three of the mercenaries chuckled, knowing that these Namekians would be no trouble to take care of. Piccolo only stood back and observed. Out from behind the other two the small green one appeared.

"Too bad we didn't get to show them our new dance captain; they would have been blown away!" Guldo claimed, stretching for his battle.

"Perhaps we should show Lord Frieza… yes, Guldo, when you're done here we will-"

"Shut up!" Nail shouted "I will kill you!" Nail started towards Guldo, who held his breath just as Nail was about to land a blow on him. Nail was frozen in place, and the other fighters watched as Guldo prepared a finishing move. The small green alien picked up a few of the surrounding trees with his mind, and closed them in towards Nail.

A thin beam pierced through Guldo's skull, killing him instantly and causing the trees, and Nail, to drop to the ground.

The two other fighters looked in awe as Guldo's body fell to the ground.

"What an idiot, he didn't even bother to trap both of the fighters." Ginyu said, disappointed.

Nail rose back to his feet, shaken by his near death experience.

"Such cheap tricks." Piccolo said, cracking his neck.

"Well, guess we're going to have to do this ourselves Jeice." Ginyu said. Jeice nodded and placed the Dragonball down next to the house.

Nail quickly flew back and looked at the two powerful warriors.

"Nail, you take the small one." Piccolo said, not bothering to take off his weighted clothes. The other Namekian nodded, turning towards his opponent.

The four warriors stared at each other for a few moments, Piccolo smirked as he looked into Ginyu's eyes.

"You must be Ginyu." Piccolo said to the purple alien. Ginyu smiled and nodded.

"Of course I am. My strength is second only to Lord Frieza!" Ginyu gloated, "Although I don't know why I should bother telling you this, seeing as how Namekian's are pathetically weak." Nail clenched his teeth. "Jeice, let's finish this quickly." Ginyu ordered, they both ran after the two Namekians at top speed.

* * *

Zarbon landed down near Piccolo's ship.

"What is this?" He asked himself, analyzing the ship with his new scouter. No ship in Frieza's empire was of this make, he was sure of that, and even more disturbing was the dead soldier strew about on the ground. Zarbon covered his nose and continued forward, the stench of blood was rancid and it was clear that someone was on this vessel. "Why couldn't Lord Frieza send Appule to do this?" Zarbon complained, reaching the stairs of the ship.

Zarbon wasn't sure whether to destroy the ship right there or call to see if anyone was on it.

Ultimately he decided that he might as well see who made this mess.

"This is Zarbon, Lord Frieza's second in command. Come out or I'll be forced to destroy your vessel." A voice screamed from the inside of the ship.

"Calm down! We're coming! Don't do anything to the ship!" Soon, two figures emerged, one of blue hair the other Zarbon could tell was a Saibamen.

"Saibamen? What's going on here? Vegeta took the rest of them with him didn't he?" Zarbon thought out loud, almost ignoring the other life form.

Although she had been quite taken with this handsome alien, Bulma was shocked that he acknowledged the Saibamen but not her.

"Hey! I'm here too you know!" Bulma shouted, causing Zarbon to look at her.

"My, what a beautiful maiden." Zarbon said halfheartedly. Bulma didn't seem to notice however, and in her current state she would help just about anybody who wasn't Piccolo. "Could you please tell me what you and your… friend is doing here?" His sweet words echoed in Bulma's ears. For too long had she been tormented by the Namekian, his death threats had made her life a living hell, and she wanted out.

"Well, we-" However, Piccolo wouldn't be gone forever. He would be back, and if she betrayed him, her family would all be killed. "we were…" She didn't know what to think anymore, but at least she started to come to terms with reality.

"Yes?" Zarbon asked, growing impatient.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Bulma asked. The handsome alien flipped his hair back and looked into Bulma's eyes.

"I'm tired of this idle conversation. I must report back to Frieza soon, and if you don't tell me what I need to know, I'm sure that Frieza would love to interrogate you." Zarbon gave a slight smirk "and my Lord is not nearly as patient as I." Lod took a defensive stance against the alien, ready to die for his new friend. Zarbon almost instinctively clicked the button on his scouter, coming up with almost 5000, easily stronger than an average soldier but still no match for himself.

"Well if you don't want to talk, I'm sure I could just rough you up a bit." Zarbon said, taking off his scouted and placing it safely on the ground. Lod started to power up, but all 3 of them became distracted by someone landing near them.

Skriatch had finally reached the ship with the Dragonball. One skill he had developed in his time on Earth was sensing powers, and he felt Zarbon had an immense one. It was vast, more than Skriatch could handle.

"You… you have a Dragonball!" Zarbon turned his full attention to this new Saibamen, Skriatch then dropped the Dragonball onto the ground. "Do you have any more in that ship?" He asked, turning towards Bulma.

"I- uh…" Bulma wasn't entirely sure how to respond, and Zarbon's patience seemed to reach its end.

"Fine, I'll look for the Balls myself. Try to stop me and I'll-"

"Wait. I go with." Skriatch said, running up next to this new fighter. Everyone seemed perplexed by this recent development. "I take you to them." Zarbon's look of bewilderment diminished, and in its place was a light smile.

"Well, I like this little one!" The blue alien said, placing a hand on Skriatch's head. "Come, show me to the Dragonballs." Skriatch led the way, with Bulma and Lod being pushed to the side.

They both stood at the base of the ship, and Bulma nervously began to bite her nails. Now that this stranger had come and was going to take the balls, she wondered if she would ever get to see her family, Yamcha, or anyone else again…

"I fight?" Lod asked Bulma, who snapped out of her daze to look at the Saibamen. She thought for a moment, but shook her head in declination.

"I've lost everyone, even Gohan… I don't want to lose the one that's been the nicest to me since we left Earth." Tears were forming in the blue haired ladies eyes as she talked, but Lod had no idea what to make of them.

"Why? Why water come out of eye?" Lod asked, but Bulma could give no answer.

* * *

Piccolo blocked a kick from Ginyu with ease, and Nail was faring about evenly with Jeice. The Captain had been attacking in futility for a good few minutes before he realized that it was pointless to keep attacking this way. Ginyu even realized that Piccolo was only blocking, and not attacking at all.

"What are you waiting for? Show me what you can do!" Ginyu shouted as he flew back a few yards, diverting Jeice's attention enough for Nail to land a solid blow. Piccolo laughed and began charging an attack. 'What's he doing?' Ginyu thought to himself, watching the power level skyrocket on his scouter. Absolutely horrified at the reading, Ginyu backed away slowly, mouth wide open. "T-two hundred th-thousan!" Piccolo threw the energy ball at Ginyu, who snapped out of his daze just long enough to dodge the oncoming attack.

An enormous, ear piercing explosion erupted behind Ginyu, who kept his view fixated on the Namekian below.

'I can't hold anything back!' Ginyu powered up to his maximum and launched himself towards Piccolo, readying his most powerful kick.

"Block this!" He screamed as he saw Piccolo's arms go up in defense. The kick landed and Piccolo was pushed back several feet.

"Not bad." Piccolo whipped off his turban and cape "But this is getting boring." The purple alien looked on in complete horror.

Piccolo cracked his neck as a sadistic smile spread across his face.

Ginyu became desperate, and decided to do the one thing that could save him.

"Body change!" The captain shouted, however, Piccolo quickly dodged out of the way, leaving Ginyu extremely drained.

"The hell was that!" Piccolo shouted, losing his smirk and glaring at Ginyu.

"Damn!" Ginyu fell to his knees. 'This can't happen... Lord Frieza would never forgive me if I lost to this Namekian!' He then landed on the palms of his hands, completely wiped of energy.

"Foolish move." Piccolo scolded, landing himself directly in front of Ginyu. "I was hoping to get more of a fight out of you. Pity." Piccolo kicked Ginyu in the face, breaking his nose and launching him back. The broken Captain lay on his back, his face bleeding profusely. Ginyu attempted to raise himself by his elbows, but found himself too drained and weakened to even do that. Piccolo would have left the pathetic alien to drown in his own blood had he not seen this body change technique that Ginyu so foolishly used, but now he was properly paranoid that Ginyu might try to use it once more.

Piccolo walked over to Ginyu and grinned, staring down at the weakened fighter with a sadistic pleasure.

"Go ahead… and kill me…" Ginyu spat out, scraping his fingers across the dirt.

"With pleasure." The evil Namekian raised his palm and blasted Ginyu as he attempted to say something. It was too late, now his body was nothing but a completely unrecognizable charred corpse.

"Cap'n no!" Jeice screamed after seeing his captain killed.

Piccolo turned his attention to the startled Jeice and Nail, and it was obvious that Nail was losing badly. Jeice had already blown off Nail's arm.

Thinking quickly, Jeice kicked Nail in the face. This would usually have enough force to kill a normal Namekian, but Nail only crashed into the ground and fell into unconsciousness. He was about to attack Piccolo when fear overcame him. "N-no…" The red alien stared into the eyes of the grinning Namekian, and only found death for him if he attempted to fight. Jeice quickly began to flee, knowing all too well that he was about to die if he stayed there any longer.

"I'll avenge you cap'n, I swe- AAGH!" Jeice was engulfed in a bright white light, and in almost an instant, he was annihilated. Piccolo didn't bother to grab his turban or cape, and instead walked over to Nail, who was beginning to regain consciousness.

"G-guru…" Nail coughed out, blood spurting from his mouth. The warrior began to stand up, astonishing Piccolo, who thought that Nail was far weaker than he truly was. As soon as Nail was finally on his feet, he seemed to concentrate, his eyes closed and using his only remaining hand to grab the stump that was left of his arm.

With a grunt of power and frustration, Nail's new left arm shot out. The Namekian seemed drained, and a bit wobbly, but he shook his and looked up towards Piccolo, who was only observing Nail's actions.

"Wh-what are you?" Nail asked, moving around his newly grown arm. "I've heard stories of Namekian's like you…" Piccolo's brow raised in curiosity at Nails comment. "Before this world was struck with catastrophe, there were Namekians capable of insane feats of strength… but their power corrupted them." Piccolo chuckled at nails statement "Then, the catastrophe came and… wiped out all of the Namekians, save for Guru." Nail shook his head "But I think I know why you aren't as powerful as you should be."

"What?" Piccolo said, eyeing Nail curiously.

"You are not whole. I can feel it." Piccolo's eyes shot open.

"How the hell did you know that?" Nail grinned

"I can sense it. Some Namekians have the ability to split themselves." The grin on the warrior face soon died, however "but when someone does so, their power drops drastically." Piccolo's mind raced, and quickly he devised a nefarious plan for his return to Earth.

Both of the Namekians sat in complete silence for a full minute.

"If you had become whole once more, you could have annihilated this tyrant easily." Nail sighed, looking over the horizon at one of the planets suns.

"If you plan to fight Frieza with me, come. Otherwise, return to your master." Piccolo took off in the direction of his ship. Nail sighed, and went after the evil Namekian.

* * *

"NOW ENTERING ATMOSPHERE" A computerized voice explained.

Goku sighed and looked out the window of his ship. The screen became blurry, but after a few minutes of turbulence, the Saiyan had finally made it to his destination. The clear, beautiful skies of Namek were in sight.

"I'm coming Gohan, whether you want me to or not…"

* * *

Gohan's search for survivors seemed completely pointless. The entire village was completely razed, and Gohan couldn't even feel an energy signal at all.

"How are we going to find the ball?" Gohan asked himself, standing next to a destroyed building. He had put out the fires already, but smoke filled the sky and made it difficult for Gohan to breathe. He was about to fly up to get a good breath of air when he saw something moving out of a house. The boy ran towards the movement, and found a dying Namekian crawling towards something.

Gohan walked towards him, his energy was extremely faint, and it was obvious he wasn't long for this world.

"El…der..." The Namekian whispered as he reached out towards another dead Namekian, who was laying before a house. The crawling Namekian then succumbed to his wounds, his head fell to the Earth and he ceased to breath. Gohan looked towards the direction that the deceased elder was, and decided that it must be the place where the Dragonball was kept.

The boy tossed the body aside, opened the door to the house and walked in.

It was dark, and from the opposite side of the room he could hear a faint whisper.

"Gohan…"

* * *

**Who is this stranger speaking to Gohan? And what is Goku's plan when he meets Piccolo? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice_!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	21. Chapter 21: Tools of Destuction

**Chapter 21: Tools of Destruction**

The air suddenly chilled around the boy. It was so dark that he could barely see a foot in front of him, and yet somehow someone knew who he was and what he looked like from across the room. Gohan hadn't been scared in a very long while, but right now his mind was in absolute shock. That voice felt familiar, someone he knew once, someone that he had cared about, but one that he had forsaken. He could hear the faintness, the death that lingered in it, the futility, and he was at once angry, sad, and afraid.

Gohan looked throughout the room to no avail, even if there was someone in the room, he would not have been able to see them. As the fear grew inside of the boy, the room seemed to grow darker and colder, and if he had not been so determined to grab the Dragonball, Gohan would have left in an instant. He felt unwelcome, and yet at the same time he wanted to know who this person was. It was silent for the longest time, and neither Gohan nor the stranger said any words for the longest time. He was too filled with emotion to move at the moment, and whoever was in the room with him was either now dead or tormenting the boy.

Finally he had gathered enough resolve to respond to the voice, albeit with a hoarse response; "Who's there?" He asked, not knowing what else to say. The room remained silent, and soon Gohan found himself trying to walk forward through the darkness. He could hear no breathing, no movement, nothing at all. He seemed to have stepped out of reality, and into a world completely separate from the one that he knew.

"Gohan…" The voice broke through the silence, closer now to Gohan than it had been before. This time the boy realized who was speaking to him.

"No… you're dead… why?" Gohan cried, clenching his fists in anger. His eyes showed a different emotion, he tightened them as tears began to form. He received no answer, and the room began to slowly grow even colder than it already was. Gohan fell to his knees, he felt as if this spirit was taunting him, pushing him to do something, something that he had no idea of. An intense feeling of loneliness swept throughout the boy, he felt completely alone, ashamed and broken.

He didn't know how long he had sat there and cried on his knees. Time slowed nearly to a halt, and after an eternity, another voice broke through the blinding darkness and blistering cold.

"Master!" Trokar broke the illusion surrounding the boy, who snapped back to reality and quickly looked behind him to see the Saibamen at the door. Gohan hobbled back onto his feet and in a weak, dazed state he walked over towards the Dragonball and laid one hand on it.

"We've got to get this to the ship." The boy stated hoarsely, grabbing the ball with his other hand and lifting it off of its pedestal. Trokar quickly rushed towards the ball as well and grabbed it himself.

"I carry, you tired." Trokar said, Gohan went along only because he truly felt as if he could barely even fly. The two left the home, and Gohan was relieved that he could finally get away from the voice that haunted him. As they stepped out into the greenery, Gohan shot to awareness seeing Recoome's broken and beaten body. He was breathing, but just barely, and it was obvious that he was close to the brink of death. Gohan looked towards Trokar and then back to Recoome, he needed to do something before he went back to the ship.

"Trokar, go back with the Dragonaball. I need to have a word with our friend." The Saibamen nodded and blasted off towards the ship. The boy slowly walked over to the barely conscious warrior, staring at him while he gasped for air. A sly grin spread across Gohan's face, his handiwork was truly excellent.

"W-what do… you… want?" Recoome managed to gasp out at the boy. Recoome screamed in pain as Gohan kicked him hard in the side, causing the large man to hack and cough.

"Tell me what you know about Frieza and maybe I'll let you have a painless death."

"I have… a better… idea." Recoome gasped, struggling for air "Why don't.. you… AGH!" Recoome screamed once more when Gohan slammed his elbow into Recoome's gut. Blood spurted out of his mouth.

"I can make you feel pain that no mortal being has ever felt before. Now tell me everything you know" Gohan ordered, grinning once more "before I start ripping out your fucking eyeballs." Recoome coughed a few times before he was able to speak again, and this time his demeaner had changed.

"The boss… he… he can transform… more… powerful" Recoome coughed once more, blood dripping down his mouth. "You have… no chance… not a single chance!" Recoome screamed as Gohan clenched his fists in rage.

"Shut up!" The boy screamed, charging an attack in front of Recoome's face. The badly damaged warrior looked into the face of death and smiled.

"Fuck… you…"

Gohan blasted Recoome's head with his ki attack, incinerating it completely. His temper had gotten the best of him, and now that he was disoriented from his previous experience, Gohan didn't know if he even wanted to continue finding Dragonballs. He fell to his knees, and in a fit of pure anger and sadness, he screamed towards the sky as his energy exploded.

* * *

"Woah… that's Gohan… He's gotten so powerful." Goku said as he walked out into the planet Namek. A feeling of both pride and regret washed over him, and he knew that Gohan wouldn't be happy to see him.

"I've got to find Piccolo and the Dragonballs first, then I can deal with Gohan and Frieza." Goku tied the Senzu beans to his waist and sensed around to see if he could find Piccolo's energy source. After a few second, he ascertained the Namekians whereabouts and blasted off towards him.

* * *

As Piccolo and Nail neared the site that his ship had landed in, the evil Namekian could not seem to sense Lod, Skriatch or Mkkyr aboard the vessel. He sensed that Trokar was on his way, but no matter how hard he tried, he simply could not pick up any of the Saibamen's energy levels.

"Shit…" Piccolo cursed under his breath, although Nail picked up on it using his enhanced Namekian hearing.

"What? Did you sense something?" Nail asked, still suspicious of this strange Namekians motives.

"It isn't what I'm sensing, it's what I'm not." Growled Piccolo, picking up speed. Nail tried to follow as best he could.

Trokar landed just as Piccolo and Nail had, and the first thing they both noticed was the gore that lay before them. A man had been ripped to shreds, and obviously there had been some sort of struggle to escape something.

"Trokar, search the damn ship for the Dragonballs." Piccolo shouted, the Saibamen dropped the Dragonball he was holding and rushed quickly inside. 'I don't care about the others, but if someone else gets a hold of those Dragonballs we're fucked!' Piccolo thought with a menacing snarl. A thought popped into his head at that precise moment. "Fuck!" He yelled, startling everyone in the vicinity.

"What is it this time?" Nail shouted, stepping back.

"We forgot the damn ball!" Piccolo said, blasting off back towards the village that he had just came from. Nail decided it was best to stay behind and not slow him down.

"Master! Master!" Trokar shouted, running out of the ship "No one inside! All balls gone!" Trokar looked around to find that there was only Nail.

"He's gone to collect a ball that we forgot back in the village. A lot's been happening, I sense much confusion in your group, especially from you and the boy." Nail explained, taking a seat on a nearby rock. "You don't have to follow this one's evil ways. What do you want to do?"

Trokar looked away to the horizon, not wanting to speak. They sat like this for half a minute before Nail spoke up again.

"This is all a grave situation. Everyone is in danger, you have to protect what is important to you. My people are all that matter to me right now, and even if I have to fight alongside such an evil bastard, I'll do it to save them." The brave Namekian warrior sighed and looked towards the dirt. "And I can tell that you have someone you wish to protect."

The Saibamen turned to Nail, eyes forlorn and seemingly about to cry. He didn't want to face it, but he had to at some point.

"That boy… Guru could sense there was still good in him. Still something left that could be used for everyone's benefit and not just…" Nail clenched his teeth in anger. "No one deserves to be a tool."

These words resonated inside of Trokar for a long while. He looked away and clenched his fists.

"Even if you can't protect him physically… please, protect him from himself. Protect him from becoming what I fear he may become."

The two of them sat in silence for a what seemed like a very long time, but something surprised both Trokar and Nail at the same time.

"Someone coming!" Trokar shouted, taking a fighting stance, as did Nail.

A moment later, Zarbon touched down in front of them both, with a few soldiers in tow.

* * *

As Piccolo neared the spaceship, many different senses invaded his mind, and none of them were particularly positive for him.

"Oh no, no no no!" He shouted, feeling an enormous energy on the move towards the Dragonball that he and Nail had forgotten. However, he also sensed a very familiar power approaching the ship, two to be precise, but one he was absolutely sure to be Goku. "Damn, what should I do…" Knowing that he didn't have time to hesitate, the Namekian sped up towards the lost Dragonball in order for it not to fall into Frieza's hands. 'How could I have been so stupid! Damn it, all the fighting, it was too fun to kill again.' He thought, nearing his target.

Luckily for Piccolo, he touched down next to the Dragonball just in time, as the insane power that he sensed had not yet been able to acquire it. Piccolo was about to grab the ball when he heard a voice he had never heard before.

"Well well well, if it isn't the little Namekian that could!"

Piccolo snarled and clenched his fists, readying for a fight. He slowly turned to see a small demonish looking alien, and he could only presume it to be the entity that King Kai had feared so much. Despite his stature, Piccolo could tell by the sheer energy that this entity held that he was not to be fucked with.

"Frieza, I presume." Piccolo smirked, trying to keep his cool.

"Oh, so you have heard of me, excellent. Then you'll excuse me if I dispense with the pleasantries." Frieza said, hands still firmly behind his back. "You've been killing my men, I can obviously see that you've already dispensed of my most powerful fighting force." The evil overlord tilted his head towards the bodies of Captain Ginyu, Jeice and Guldo.

"They were pathetic." Piccolo proclaimed, trying not to give in to the sheer horror of the magnitude of this beings power.

"I can see that you're very powerful, yes. You don't have to brag about it." Frieza chuckled and began to talk once again "You know, you've been the biggest thorn in my side since… well, ever! So I have an offer for you, Namekian. Work for me, gather the last ball and I shall give you a position of power in my galactic empire." Piccolo was taken aback by this offer. Obviously he would not ever work under anyone, but he wanted to humor Frieza.

"That… is a very intriguing offer…" Frieza smiled once more.

"I don't usually lend my hand to anyone, especially if they cross me. I've decided to give you a second chance, because as you can plainly see, I'm at a lack of powerful soldiers since you killed them all." Piccolo looked away slightly, but kept his eye on Frieza.

"And if I accepted your offer, what does it entail?" The Namekian asked. Frieza shook his head.

"Look, I don't have all day to sit around and chat."

"I need to know what I'm getting into before I accept anything." Frieza's grin shifted to a grimace.

"Fine, I'll indulge your curiosity. A high ranking officer in my empire gets to command a group of soldiers that they select, as well as selecting the ships that they will travel with. I run a galactic trade, destroying sentient life on planets and selling them to the highest bidder, so I usually pay my higher ups rather well. Ginyu here was practically one of the richest men in the north quadrant. That is, until you relieved him of duty." Frieza smiled and continued. "of course, you will be working under me, and that entails killing off millions, if not billions or trillions of inhabitance in order to make it ready for sale. I'll have you put to wo-"

"SOLAR FLARE!" Piccolo screamed as Frieza's eyes widened. A flash of brilliant light shot into the overlords eyes as he attempted to shield himself to no avail.

"Damn you, you insolent-" A fist collided against Frieza's face, and his scouter was smashed. In a rage, Frieza shot a huge energy ball in a direction he could only hope that his opponent was in, however, Piccolo dodged it and grabbed the Dragonball, flying away as fast as he possibly could.

Frieza rubbed his eyes, sneering in total rage and frustration.

"I will kill you!" He screamed after Piccolo.

* * *

"Ahh, if it isn't another one of Skriatch friends!" Zarbon said, looking down at Trokar. "He told me you're the strongest Saibamen. Tsk…" The handsome alien shook his head "Too bad I have to kill you. Men, attack and kill them both." Zarbons men rushed at Nail and Trokar. Nail easily disposed of the two men that had attacked him with a kick to the gut and a punch to the left temple. Both of them were unconscious.

Trokar blocked an attack from one and tanked one from the other. They were no match for the Saibamen however, and he grabbed ones arm as he attempted to punch him and threw the soldier into the other, sending them flying into a nearby mountainside. Zarbon clapped his hands and smiled.

"An excellent show. Lord Frieza tasked me with destroying this vessel, and I intend to do just that. Now see how you deal with a real warrior!" The blue alien said as he removed his scouted and took a fighting stance.

"This one is mine." Nail said to Trokar, leaving the Saibamen a bit disappointed. Zarbon quickly rushed at Nail who blocked his attack with his forearm. It hurt, but only a bit, and soon Nail was blocking a barrage of attacks from his opponent, waiting for the right time to strike. An opening presented itself when Nail blocked a left hook, and The Namek quickly took advantage of it by punching Zarbon straight in the chest. The impact sent Zarbon back a few meters, winded.

"That was… more than the others…" Zarbon attempted to say, referencing the strength of the other Namekians he had faced. Nail went in for a kick that was blocked by Zarbon as he punched Nail in the gut, flying back and rushing at the Namekian with another punch. Nail blocked it with his leg and backfilled once through the air, blasting a quick ki attack at Zarbon who shielded himself with both his arms. The impact damaged him, but he was still very ready to strike back. Zarbon attempted a right hook on Nail, who was slightly drained from his ki attack, however he successfully blocked it and punched Zarbon in the face, sending him flying backwards.

The blue alien quickly recovered and was surprised to find Nail had been chasing him, delivering a devastating right kick to Zarbons side, making him tumble to the side, writhing in his side.

Zarbon quickly took a defensive position as Nail barraged him with a flurry of kicks and punches that left Zarbon quickly drained. Zarbon used a quick ki attack to throw Nail off guard, catching the Namekian in his left shoulder, causing him to step back. Nail brushed it off and stood across from Zarbon, waiting for his next move.

"I can tell you aren't like the others." Zarbon said, panting slightly, knowing that he wasn't a match for this particular Namek. At least not in this current form. "You've forced me to reveal the beast to my beauty!" Zarbon shouted as he begin to transform. Not knowing exactly what was happening, Nail shielded himself, expecting some sort of energy attack. When the he realized there was no attack coming, Nail lowered his arms and stepped back, seeing Zarbon in a completely different way.

"What the…?" Nail whispered to himself.

"Haha, now you're screwed!" Zarbon chuckled, launching himself at Nail, punching the surprised Namekian in the stomach, causing him to stagger back in pain. Another punch was thrust at Nail, this time from the left, but Nail blocked it with his right arm and thrust his left arm towards Zarbons face. The beast caught his arm and attempted to kick Nail in the stomach, but Nail blocked the left leg with his right. Now in a very precarious position, both of the fighters let go of one another and flew back, staring their opponents down.

Nail broke eye contact and launched a flurry of punched that Zarbon blocked, although one got through and sent him flying backward. Nail took advantage of this opportunity and blasted a large ki attack towards his opponent. Zarbon saw the blast coming, but could not block or dodge.

"AGH!" The blast hit Zarbon directly in the chest, throwing him into a back flip and then on the ground, face first in the dirt. Nail walked up to him, grabbing onto one of his arms, however, Zarbon grabbed Nails throat and clenched down on it as hard as he could, lifting himself to his feet as he strangled the Namekian who could do nothing to stop Zarbon.

"Now you die!" Zarbon laughed, tightening his grip on Nails throat.

"No!" Trokar screamed as he slammed his left foot into Zarbons face, causing him to let go of Nails throat and stagger back a few feet. Trokar used his entire body to tackled Zarbons stomach, throwing him to the ground. Trokar slammed his fists into Zarbons chest, blood spurting from his mouth. As the Saibamen went for another strike, Zarbon swatted him away easily, struggling to get back on his feet. As soon as Zarbons head lifted, he saw that Nails finger was pointed towards his face.

"Fuck." A piercing beam was sent through Zarbons brain, and the beast fell to the ground.

Nail panted a bit and helped Trokar to his feet, the both of them heading back to the ship.

* * *

The two of them had only barely settled back into their spots when someone arrived, someone that Trokar had only seen once before.

"You… you look like Piccolo, who are you?" Goku asked Nail, who was just as confused as Goku was.

"I am Nail, a warrior of the Namekian people. And you are?" Nail asked, wondering who and why this person was here at all.

"I'm Goku, I'm here to find the Dragonballs, and my son."

"He isn't your son anymore, Goku." Piccolo said, touching down near the ship. "He hates you, and if you know what's good for you you'll leave this place now."

The tension in this moment was unbearable for everyone involved.

Goku desperately wanted to attack Piccolo, and clenched his fists in anger.

"I'm not here…" Goku looked away "to fight you." Piccolo shook his head and smirked.

"Good, because if you were, I'd have Gohan kill you." Goku held back all of his anger, trying not to attack the son of a bitch in front of him.

"We need to work together to beat him. You sensed it, I know, you almost fought him. We need to help each other." Goku explained trying to hold his composure. Piccolo didn't want to admit it, but it was true, he did need as much help as possible to defeat this powerful enemy, even if it meant he had to work with his arch nemesis.

"Fine, but don't expect a great big hug from Gohan." Piccolo said, turning his attention to Trokar. "Did you find anything?"

The Saibamen shook his head.

"We have some unconscious soldiers for questioning, if you'd like to speak with them." Nail asked, to which Piccolo nodded. One of the soldiers was hunched on the ship, looking up towards Piccolo as he knelt down to be at eye level with him.

"I'm not gonna tell you shit." The soldier said, staring Piccolo straight in the eyes. Piccolo only smirked.

"Trokar, bring me the other soldier." He ordered. Trokar complied and dragged the unconscious soldier to Piccolo, who laid him next to the soldier he was interrogating. "What's his name?"

The soldier looked confused. "Why the fuck do you care?"

"Tell me, or he dies."

"H-his name is Hix."

"So you do know his name…" Piccolo smirked, grabbing Hix's face and crushing it in his hands. Hix woke up momentarily and screamed before his head was crushed, blood spurting all over the other soldiers face.

Everyone in the vicinity looked away in horror, especially Goku, who was even more enraged than before.

"You BASTARD!" The soldier shouted, attempting to punch Piccolo in the chest. When it failed to do anything, he gave up and sat back. "Why? Why! He had a family!"

"Piccolo, why? He wasn't even a threat!" Goku shouted at him.

"Shut up Goku." Piccolo said "Now that's going to happen to you if you don't tell me right now where Frieza took the Dragonballs." The soldier looked over at Hix's crushed head and gulped, deciding that he would take his chanced with this sadistic Namekian.

"Th-they… The ship, Frieza's ship. Here, take this, it'll show you where it is." The soldier handed Piccolo a small device that looked a bit like a map, with a small dot that he could only theorize was where the ship could have been.

"Was that so hard?" Piccolo smiled, lifting the soldier up by the collar of his armor. Piccolo bared his teeth at the soldier, who cringed and panted in fear.

"Pathetic." Piccolo said as he threw the soldier to the ground, crushing his head beneath his foot.

Goku took a step forward.

"That's enough you bastard!" Goku shouted, having seen enough of Piccolo's malicious ways. "I can't take it, I'll kill you right here you sick twisted low life!"

"You'll have to go through me first you piece of shit!" Gohan said, quickly landing between a chuckling Piccolo and an enraged Goku, who stepped back in fear and astonishment. "No one lays a hand on my master, especially not you Goku!" Gohan began to power up, his vengeance was finally at hand.

* * *

**What will happen now that Gohan finally has a chance to prove himself by attacking his father? Will Piccolo and Gohan be able to gather the rest of the Dragonballs? Find out next time on Piccolo's Choice!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	22. Chapter 22: Immortality At Last

**Chapter 22: Immortality At Last**

Goku stared in horror and amazement at his son's power. It was far more immense than he had imagined and equally immense was his hatred towards his father. The Saiyan could feel it, he had failed his son, and there wasn't anything he could do to turn back time. Piccolo had corrupted him, and now Gohan was just as horrible as Piccolo was. It was in this moment that Goku took a defensive stance, waiting for Gohan to unleash his terrible powers on him, but also hoping that somewhere, deep inside of him, was the little boy that he had raised with Chi-Chi. He was in there somewhere, so Goku just had to bring him out.

"Gohan, I know I wasn't there for you." Goku said with sympathy in his voice "My father died when I was a kid too, you know. I didn't have anyone." Goku's voice never rose once, and Gohan began to become more and more angry every time he heard Goku speak. "I didn't hate him. He raised me to be who I am today, and I wanted to raise you like he did. I failed you, Gohan…" Goku clenched his fists, and lowered his head in shame "I failed to teach you what you deserved to know. I never tried to see you as you were; a strong child, filled with potential." A tear formed in Goku's eye as he spoke, but Gohan made no note of it. "I'll always love you son, I'm so sorry…"

"You don't get to be sorry!" Gohan screamed, every ounce of his body teaming with frustration and anger. "I was alone for an entire year with only my master to keep me company! _He_ was the one who raised me to be strong, while _you_ only sheltered me!" The boy shouted, his aura was a brilliant shade of white, and it was growing quickly. Piccolo, Nail and Trokar all looked in nervousness and curiosity; however, Piccolo knew this would get out of hand quickly if he didn't intervene soon.

"I know now that I should have trained you. Look at you now son, you're so stron-"

"I'm _not_ your _son_ anymore!" Gohan yelled, interrupting Goku.

"Calm down Gohan!" Piccolo shouted, "There's no time for this! We have to go get the Dragonballs before Frieza finds his way back to his ship!" Everyone stared at Gohan, wondering how he would react to this. The boy's aura stayed steady for a moment, and then steadily decreased. No one was more relieved than Goku.

"I… I'm so sorry master…" Gohan lowered his head, both in shame and to hide his angered expression.

"You have time to be sorry later. Right now, we need to take these Dragonballs and get to Frieza's ship immediately. We can make our wish and be rid of that pompous maniac." Piccolo proposed "I felt his power Gohan; I've never felt anything like it. None of us are even close to a match for him." The boy nodded, and Goku slowly released his defensive stance.

"Come, Goku. I'll have Gohan kill you later, but for now we need you to help us defeat Frieza." Piccolo shot him small smirk "At least I won't destroy Earth when I get back; you have to admit that I'm better than the alternative." Goku looked away and clenched his teeth.

Nail suddenly spoke up, wondering what exactly Piccolo's plan was.

"Before we go, what did you plan on wishing for exactly?" Nail asked, almost not wanting to hear the response. Piccolo thought for a moment, and then turned to Nail.

"Immortality, of course. A wish even my father could not have been granted." Piccolo chuckled to himself, leaving Nail and Goku with a bad taste in their mouths. However, Nail knew that as long as Piccolo didn't know the Namekian tongue, he could not grant the wish himself.

Piccolo then shot up into the sky quickly and unexpectedly, rushing off in the direction that Frieza's ship was. Quickly following him was Gohan, and then Goku. Nail and Trokar quickly grabbed a ball and took the back, almost not being able to keep up.

"Listen to me Gohan." Piccolo asked of his pupil, who looked over at his master. "The Saibamen don't matter, but Bulma does. When we reach the ship, find her, and bring her to me. If the Saibamen are with her, bring them along too, but only if they aren't slowing you down. Understood?" Gohan nodded. The boy was still absolutely furious with Goku.

'How dare he try to apologize!' Gohan thought to himself, planning on taking it out on Frieza if he ever saw him. "What was Frieza like master?" Gohan asked aloud.

Piccolo grimaced just thinking about him. It was as if the power he felt was only a fraction of what Frieza had in store. "I don't know." The Namekian said, "All I know is that we don't want to fight him." Gohan shuddered. If Piccolo was this afraid of him, perhaps this Frieza shouldn't even be trifled with.

The flight was relatively quick and as soon as Piccolo and Gohan touched down, they noticed that most of Frieza's men were doing some kind of exercise. Goku, Nail and Trokar landed close to Piccolo and also noticed that the men were in the middle of some kind of routine. The men all took notice of the 5 strangers and all got into fighting stances.

"Hello." Piccolo smiled, lifting his hand. All of the men fired their blasters at Piccolo, expecting him to do some kind of energy attack. Smoke filled the area as they bombarded the Namekian with shot after shot, until nothing could be seen. The men all cheered for their victory.

"We showed that Namekian a thing or two!" one shouted.

"Hell yeah! Send him to where he belongs!" said another. However, all of their eyes stayed trained on the smoke when they heard a strange noise, and then saw a brilliant light.

As the smoke cleared, all of the men gasped in horror as they saw a huge energy ball formed in Piccolo's hand, ready to be released.

"Say goodbye boys!" Piccolo shouted, unleashing bolts of ki from his massive ball of energy, killing individual soldiers as they attempted to run. Gohan quickly shot out and broke anyone's neck who tried to flee. Goku turned away in disgust. "Enjoy the show everyone!" Piccolo shouted again, laughing with glee as he sadistically murdered all of the soldiers. One had almost gotten away, but he was struck down by Gohan.

"So close." Gohan mumbled, terrifying the soldier as he attempted to crawl away from the boy. "Are you afraid?" Gohan smirked, looking directly into the soldiers eyes as he slowly walked towards him. The soldier nodded. "Good." The small Saiyan quickly rushed up to the soldier and rammed his knee into his face, breaking his skull and killing him instantly.

The slaughter was finally over, Piccolo released the energy he had collected and dispersed it.

"Gohan, search the ship and find Bulma." The boy nodded and began to run towards the ship when he was stopped by someone.

"No!" Burter screamed as he exited the ship. "No! Damnit no! Not you again!" Burter backed up into a wall, shaking his head in sheer terror. Gohan smiled, he could finally finish what he started.

"Get ready you cowar-"

"Gohan, find Bulma!" Piccolo shouted, snapping Gohan's attention back to his master. The distraction was enough for Burter to get past Gohan and fly off. "He's going to get away!" Gohan shouted.

"So let him, he isn't important." Piccolo said a steely gaze in his eyes. Gohan looked at his master for a moment with distain, and then went into the ship. Piccolo could hear the screams of soldiers who were hiding onboard; it was music to his ears.

'If he continues his reluctance, I may have to put him down…' Piccolo thought to himself, turning towards Nail, Goku and Trokar. "There are some things you need to know before Frieza arrives. Goku, you will be helping Gohan and I fight. Nail you and Trokar need to find a place to hide and perhaps to attack, _if_ things get desperate. Although I hate to admit it, this Frieza's power, it… far outclasses even mine. I don't _quite_know how we're going to do this." Piccolo said solemnly. Nail looked away, and thought to himself. "Of course we could use our wish and run, but Frieza would find and destroy Earth. No, we need to kill him here and now, or we're all fucked." Goku and Trokar nodded, and Piccolo noticed that Nail was deep in thought.

"And what about you Namekian? It looks like you have some kind of plan." Piccolo asked, switching his attention specifically to Nail. The green warrior looked over to Piccolo and started to speak, but stopped himself. Piccolo shook his head. "Normally I would be angrier, but right now if you know something that could help us, I would be very, very grateful." The Namek said with an almost sarcastic tone. Nail sighed, knowing that what he was about to do would might change the universe forever.

"There is… one way to make you strong enough. I've felt his power before, and I know none of us are a match." Nail closed his eyes as he spoke. "It's an ancient technique, forbidden to be used… but, perhaps it's the only way now…" Piccolo became very intrigued by this, as did Goku.

"Look, whatever it is, don't do it to him. He'll only use the powers to make others lives miserable!" Goku shouted, causing Nail to growl.

"I know that! But he's the only one that it will work on!" Nail proclaimed. Goku looked quickly over to Piccolo, who was holding back a maniacal chuckle, then just as quickly returned his attention to Nail.

"This is ridiculous! I can't let you do this!" Goku shouted. The two Namekians paid him no heed, and Nail continued.

"It's something called fusion, and it hasn't been done in a very long time. I will become a part of you, and your strength will increase immensely…" Piccolo was caught up in thought at this moment, wondering how exactly this technique could work and how it would affect him in the future.

"Listen to me Nail," Goku started "You have no idea what kind of atrocities Piccolo has committed before. Please don't do this, there has to be another way!"

"Shut your _damned_ mouth Goku!" Piccolo snapped, clenching his fists. "If you think that _you_ have some way to defeat Frieza, then you're a fool. You didn't feel his power like _I_ did!" The Saiyan shook his head and changed his expression to one of frustration and anger.

"I… no! He isn't unbeatable, I can defeat him!" Goku hollered back, becoming all the more livid with each passing moment.

"Then go find him!" Piccolo shouted, nearly attacking his nemesis. He refrained, however, because he truly believed that Goku could help him somehow. Goku stayed silent, lowering his head and walking away, leaving Nail to discuss with Piccolo.

"Look, I'm not doing this for _you_, I'm doing this for my _people_. Once the Dragonballs are brought together, I believe that we should save the wishes until after Frieza has been defeated." Piccolo looked confused for a moment.

"Wishes? I thought that the Dragonballs could only grant one wish?" Nail shook his head.

"Our dragon, Porunga, grants three wishes. He is a very powerful dragon." Nail explained "You will only be able to have a wish granted if you speak in the tongue of the Namekians however."

"So then you'll have to wish for my immortality." Piccolo smirked, crossing his arms.

"I'll do no such thing. There is one Namekian left, besides Guru, and that is Gon. I can feel him; he is on his way now." Nail said, looking away towards the sky. "He is a healer and also speaks Namekian. Keep him alive, he can be a life saver for you and your friends. Literally." Piccolo nodded.

"As long as I have my wish granted, I'll keep him alive. If only to be able to use your Dragonballs once more." Nail sighed, knowing that he was about to make a huge mistake.

"Place your hand on my chest." Nail mumbled reluctantly, to which Piccolo complied, placing his right hand on Nails chest. Nail sighed once more, looking straight into Piccolo's eyes. "Please, do not harm Gon, or that child that you've taken under your wing. He deserves more than what you've given him." Piccolo sneered, but Goku had overheard and closed his eyes in disappointment of himself. Nail closed his eyes and a brilliant shining light engulfed him, tears forming in his eyes, knowing that there wasn't much chance that his people would be able to survive.

Power fluctuated into Piccolo's body, a force so strong that his eyes shot wide open. Nails body had completely vanished, along with the bright light, leaving only Piccolo where the two had been. The evil Namekian looked at his hand in astonishment.

"This… what is this?" He asked himself, feeling more powerful than he had ever felt before. "I feel… incredible!" Piccolo clenched his fists and began to laugh; knowing that now he easily had enough power to fight Frieza.

Goku felt it as well, and he was absolutely terrified. His mind raced with thoughts on how he could ever stop Piccolo, but now that Piccolo was easily stronger than him, he had no idea. 'I _can't _give up!' Goku yelled in his mind. He remained seated, not saying a word.

Gohan pushed 3 figures out of the ship, one was Bulma, and the other two were Skriatch and Lod.

"I found them, but Bulma keeps shouting something about Skriatch." Gohan explained. Bulma rushed over to Piccolo, who was still reveling in his own newfound power.

"Piccolo! Skriatch sold us out! He led that freaky alien right to the Dragonballs! Then he said that he was going to destroy the ship!" Bulma screamed, however, Piccolo paid very little attention to her. Bulma turned around to look at Gohan, but instead her eyes fell upon Goku, sitting on a rock next to the ship. Her heart sunk. Finally, she was saved from this monster.

"Goku!" She screamed, running over to him and giving him a hug. Despite all of the feelings surrounding him at the moment, Goku was generally happy when he saw Bulma, returning her embrace.

"Hey Bulma, it's nice to see you again…" Goku smiled, feeling a bit sad that he would not be able to take Bulma back to Earth yet.

"Why haven't you beaten Piccolo up yet?! Gohan he's… he's changed Goku!" Bulma cried frantically, not knowing exactly what to tell Goku. The Saiyan sighed, and took Bulma by her shoulders.

"I know Bulma. We need them though, so that we can defeat Frieza." Goku explained, "King Kai, he told me but… I was arrogant, I wanted to kill Piccolo and get my son back. I was being an idiot, and now look what I've gotten us into…" Goku looked away from Bulma, who began to cry and hugged Goku, digging her face into his chest.

While Bulma and Goku were having their moment, Piccolo looked over to find Lod screaming about Skriatch, Gohan however didn't seem to care.

"He traitor!" Lod shouted to Gohan, who was sitting on the steps to the ship. Skriatch was also shouting.

"I only do it because I wanted to find Dragonballs!"

Piccolo walked towards the arguing Saibamen and silenced them both.

"You should have protected the balls Skriatch. What happened?" Piccolo sneered.

"He show them where-"

"I asked this one Lod, keep your mouth shut." Piccolo said, pointing towards Skriatch. The Saibamen smirked.

"I showed Zarbon where Dragonballs were, so I could find others." The smarter Saibamen nodded and was surprised to find that Piccolo's hands were around his neck.

"You sniveling coward." The Namekian said, squeezing down on Skriatch's neck. The Saibamen attempted to claw at Piccolo's arm to no avail "death is too good for you, but I'm short on time, so that's precisely what you get." The Saibamen's eyes shot wide open, feeling his air pipe being crushed slowly by a grinning Piccolo. A word almost escaped from his mouth, but Piccolo quickly squeezed Skriatch's neck so hard that it snapped, killing him instantly. A loud thump was heard when Skriatch hit the ground.

"Ahh, that felt excellent." Piccolo smiled, kicking the Saibamen's body into a mountain. "Now, Lod and Gohan, grab the Dragonballs. Someone is coming, and I'd like to have my wish granted as soon as possible." Both of them nodded, rushing into the ship once more to find the balls. Piccolo turned his attention to the crying Bulma.

"You, blue haired woman!" The Namekian shouted, causing Bulma to slowly turn around, hands still firmly planted on Goku's chest. "Did you give the Dragon Radar to Frieza?" He asked, wondering how much time he had left before Frieza would arrive.

"No." Bulma gulped "I never showed it to that blue guy, or the horned one…"

"Good." Piccolo smirked, knowing that he had some time before Frieza would find his way back to the ship. Before Piccolo could begin another thought, he felt a very small energy approaching.

A few moments passed and Gon landed where Piccolo and the others were, wondering where Nail had gone.

"Where is master Nail?" The small Namekian asked, searching around the area.

"You won't find him here." Piccolo said, turning around to notice that Lod and Gohan brought four balls out and sat them next to the two that Nail and Trokar had brought. Lod went in to fetch the last one. "He and I, we are one now." Gon's expression turned to sadness. He didn't want to believe it, but he knew that Nail would do something like this if it meant saving his people.

"Oh… I see…" Gon sighed, looking at the Dragonballs that were gathered. "What are you planning on wishing for?"

Piccolo gave a sly smile, causing Gon to feel very uncomfortable.

"Immortality, for myself of course." Piccolo explained, "and if you don't grant my wish, I'll just have to kill you and your elder." Gon let out a brief shocked sigh, but then shook his head.

"Just please don't hurt Guru…" Gon said, watching as the last Dragonball was added to the pile. Piccolo turned around to see that the balls were all in a bunch.

"Summon him." Piccolo ordered. Gon made his way towards the balls, and spoke the password.

"Takkaraputo popurunga pupirittoparo!"

* * *

Frieza landed on top of a mountain, not entirely sure where he was. He felt humiliated. That lowly Namek had actually managed to hit him _and_ destroy his scouter! He was absolutely furious, but had time to cool down. Now he was focused on finding his ship, as he had no idea where to go since his scouter was effectively destroyed.

"I knew I should have mapped out this planet before I came here." Frieza mumbled to himself, scanning the area for any familiar landmarks, finding none. "This is ridiculous." The tyrant sighed, looking out into the vast horizon.

Something was amiss.

"What the hell is that?" Frieza asked himself, seeing the sky turn a dark shade, and lightning striking the ground. He was obviously very confused, but as soon as he saw the giant dragon, he knew what was going on.

"No! My Dragonballs!" Frieza screamed, rushing off into the direction of the dragon…

* * *

Porunga, dragon of Namek in all of his massive size and glory, roared with thunder and lightning surrounding him. It was far more magnificent than Shenron. The dragon was built with a much more fearsome look, but Piccolo didn't care, he only wanted his wish to be granted.

"**You who have awakened me from my slumber**"Porunga's voice boomed out, frightening Gon "**I will grant you any three wishes that are within my power to fulfill as a boon for summoning me.**"

"Gon, speak, tell him my wish!" Piccolo laughed, causing Gon to shudder. The small Namekian walked up to Porunga and began to speak in his Native Namekian tongue.

"[Great dragon Porunga, I pray to you so that you may grant my wish!]" Gon said, no one else in the area could understand him, even Piccolo. "[I wish that…]" Gon hesitated for a moment, but then decided what he would do. Gon finished his wish, and the dragon Porunga spoke once more.

"**It shall be done, as you wish.**" The dragons eyes lit up, and then quickly faded back. Piccolo grinned and began to laugh.

"I've finally done it!" He shouted, "Immortality is mine!"

"**Tell me your next wish.**" Porunga ordered, Gon looked over to Piccolo, a solemn look on his face.

"Tell the dragon that we will summon him later." Piccolo said. Gon nodded, and relayed Piccolo's message to the dragon.

Porunga grumbled, but complied. "**I will await for you to use the other two wishes.**" The giant dragon then rose up into the sky and dove down, slimming in size until there was nothing left except the Dragonballs.

By this time, everyone could feel the massive energy approaching.

"He's coming!" Screamed Gohan, finally feeling the terrible power for himself. Despite being even more powerful than he was before, and being immortal, Piccolo was still afraid of what this demon had in store.

"Lod, Trokar, get Bulma and Gon out of here." Piccolo ordered. "And take the balls to a safe location. Once you get them there, wait for my orders once I've dealt with Frieza." The Saibamen nodded. Lod grabbed Bulma and a Dragonball, while Gon grabbed two more, and Trokar followed behind with two others. "Take the other two to them and head straight back Gohan." The boy nodded, rushing the two balls to the Saibamen's hiding spot. They only had a few moments, and Goku walked up next to Piccolo.

"I know what you mean now, he's massively powerful." Goku said, wondering if Piccolo truly was powerful enough to take on this monster.

"That's why I kept you alive. We need to make sure he dies." Goku clenched his teeth, not wanting to follow with Piccolo's sadistic ways. Gohan rushed back and landed next to Piccolo, taking a fighting stance immediately.

Almost in a flash, Frieza appeared before the three fighters, looking around for the Dragonballs.

"Where the hell are they?!" He shouted, landing in front of them. "I saw the Dragon, now tell me where he is so I can have my wish!" Piccolo laughed, stepping forward.

"Sorry, but you aren't getting any wishes today." Frieza growled, but quickly regained his composure and chuckled, placing his hands behind his back.

"Ah yes, the Namekian who broke my scouter." Frieza smiled "No one has ever touched me like that before, it was awfully naughty of you to do that." The demon chuckled, obviously he was taunting Piccolo.

"If you think that you can get to me, you're wrong. I've just been granted the ultimate wish. You can't beat me." Piccolo explained, grinning and clenching his fists.

"Ah, so arrogant. You remind me of someone I used to know. Someone you killed, if I'm correct in my assumption." Frieza stated, his normal smug look plastered across his face.

"You mean Vegeta? He was a pathetic fool." Piccolo scoffed.

"Yes, he was. That much we can agree on." Frieza shook his head "but he isn't important anymore, is he?" He smiled and continued "I'll make you another deal, despite your precious actions against me. You give me the Dragonballs, and I'll let you leave this planet unharmed."

"And let you chase us back to Earth? I don't think so." Goku said, almost shaking in fear at this new opponent.

"Ah, you look like someone I used to know. Who was that Saiyan? Ah, that also doesn't matter, I killed _him_ as well." Frieza laughed "In fact I killed them all, well, besides you and a select few others, but it seems that you are the last one left." The tyrant's eyes fell upon Gohan "Although you seem to look like _a lot_ like this one." Frieza pointed towards the boy. "No matter, I'll be glad to finish what I started so long ago."

"Over my dead body!" Goku shouted, getting into a fighting stance.

"Oh calm down, you aren't even a threat to me, monkey. It's this Namek I'm more worried about, and even then, only slightly." Frieza cracked his neck to the left side. "I haven't had to fight in a long while." He then cracked it to the right side. "But if you refuse to show me where the Dragonballs are, then I'll just have to kill you all."

Piccolo laughed, infuriating Frieza.

"What's so funny?" The demon snapped. Piccolo grinned and looked at Frieza.

"I don't think I'll be dying anytime soon. You see, while you were idiotically looking for your ship, I was having my wish for immortality granted!" Frieza shot back.

"You _fool_!" Shouted Frieza, bursting with rage "that was _my _wish!" Frieza powered up and thrust his arms behind his back, charging a powerful ball of ki. "Live through this!" He yelled, combining the balls and shooting it towards Piccolo. A powerful kick sent the ball flying through the air, and Gohan now stood between Frieza and his master. "What a powerful child, I'll revel in killing you!" Laughed Frieza as he charged towards Gohan. The boy smirked and prepared himself to release _all_ of the rage that he had pent up inside.

* * *

**How will Gohan fair in his fight with the evil space tyrant? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's** __**Choice!**_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	23. Chapter 23: Gohan Vs Frieza

**Chapter 23: Gohan Vs. Frieza**

With an absolutely devastating force, Frieza's leg bared down on Gohan. The boy used all of his might to block the mighty blow, raising his arms in defense and, to even his own amazement, completely shielded himself from the blow. Absolutely flabbergasted, Frieza flew back, eyes wide open, staring at the child who somehow managed to deflect a direct attack from the most powerful being in the universe.

"W-what?!" The tyrant shouted, fists clenched in rage "How could this mere child have even survived that!?" Gohan lowered his arms, which while still strong, were throbbing slightly in pain. He looked over to Frieza, who had quickly regained his composure. "It's no matter, I'm still much, much more powerful than you could ever imagine." The horned demon chuckled and stared down Gohan, waiting for the boy to strike.

Goku was not comfortable watching from the sidelines. When he was about to charge at Frieza, he was halted by Piccolo, who placed his arm in front of Goku.

"If you interfere with this fight, I'll see to it _personally_ that all of your remaining friends die." The Namekian smirked and looked onward, anticipating the upcoming fight. Goku glanced at Piccolo in disgust for a moment before turning away and sighing.

"You'll regret that." Goku said under his breath, although loud enough for Piccolo to hear. He didn't care; he was too interested in how his pupil would do against this powerful foe.

Gohan broke the silence and sped towards Frieza, ramming his fist into Frieza's defending arms, kicking and punching the tyrant as hard and as quickly as he could. Frieza blocked every hit, and finally pushed Gohan back using both of his arms, thrusting them forward and pushing the two away from each other. Gohan quickly rushed in for another assault, but Frieza had already moved to the side. Gohan quickly re-established his course and was about to use a powerful kick when Frieza thrust himself back, grabbing Gohan's leg and throwing him into the air. Frieza quickly re adjusted his body and gathered an energy ball above his head, quickly releasing it at the boy who was still attempting to regain his balance. Gohan sensed the energy moving rapidly towards him, barring down quickly. The young Saiyan stopped midair as quickly as possible and dodged the energy ball just in time, staring down at Frieza, who was smiling at his opponent.

"Not bad, for a worthless peon such as yourself." Frieza taunted, a smug grin crept its way across his face. Gohan growled and charged a ball of ki above his head.

"Masenko!" He shouted, releasing the energy blast quickly. The tyrant easily evaded the attack.

"Hehe, you're an amateur, let me show you how t- GAH!" Frieza shouted as the masenko collided with his back, scarring the armor that he wore. Gohan chuckled, as did Piccolo. Those who were watching from afar also laughed at this so called ultimate beings misfortune.

"Maybe we do have a chance!" Gon whispered to the others. Trokar, Lod and Bulma all nodded in agreement.

"Stop that incessant cackling this instant!" Frieza hollered, fuming with anger. He shot up at Gohan, who put up a defensive stance and blocked Frieza oncoming assaults. Frieza blasted Gohan with many punches, and Gohan blocked all of them. The boy pushed both of Frieza's arms away from his body, leaving him vulnerable, and kicked Frieza in the chest with enough force to send the two skyrocketing away from one another.

Gohan quickly regained his balance, while Frieza tumbled through the sky into a nearby mountain.

The Saiyan rushed towards Frieza, seeing his opportunity to strike.

Frieza's eyes shot open, teeth clenched as he thrust his arms to the side, causing the mountain to crater and causing rocks to fall. He placed his arm in front of himself and aimed a finger at the charging child, who was nearly ready to assault the tyrant.

"Die!" Frieza shouted, releasing a thin beam of purple light towards Gohan, who nimbly dodged the beam by rolling away from it. Frieza had no time to react as Gohan's head rammed straight into Frieza's chest, running them both through the mountain and out the other side. Gohan stopped midair and straightened his body, charging a blast and quickly releasing it towards the still recovering Frieza.

Frieza saw the beam headed straight at him, but stopped with just enough time to swat the beam away from himself.

Gohan, who was slightly tired from his assault, was already showing signs of exhaustion, while Frieza remained composed and with few scratches to anything but his armor.

They both stared at one another, trying to figure out how to react to the other.

Frieza then unexpectedly crossed his arms and descended towards the ground.

"Come, join me boy, I have a proposition for you." He shouted towards Gohan, who looked confused for a moment, but complied and lowered himself to the ground.

Piccolo didn't like this, whatever was happening didn't bode well for him, or anyone else for that matter. However, he still had confidence in his pupil, and refused to interfere.

* * *

Meanwhile, Bulma dug something out of her pocket.

"What that?" Trokar asked, curiously eyeing the object in her hand.

"It… it's the scouter that we found on Raditz's body." The blue haired women explained, fastening it to her head. "I worked on it while we were heading to Namek, it should be able to read massive powers." She turned to Lod and pressed the button on the side. 8,340.

"Wow, you're even more powerful than Piccolo was when he fought Vegeta…" Bulma said, turning towards Trokar and pressing the button once more. "Woah! 34,000!" Trokar smiled slightly, knowing he was significantly more powerful than the one who he used to call master before Piccolo.

Then Bulma decided to try it on Piccolo and Goku.

She clicked the button.

"What? They're both under ten?!" She cried to herself, knowing that it couldn't be right. 'They must be hiding their real power.' She thought to herself. A better sample of power could be obtained from the two who had already been exerting energy, so Bulma looked towards Gohan and clicked the button.

The scouter fizzled a bit, but it still read the child's power.

"Gohan…" Bulma said as she read his power. A massive 300,000 was displayed. She was reluctant to do so, but decided that she also wanted to know how much power this "Frieza" character had as well. She hesitated, not wanting the scouter to malfunction, but still pressed the button anyway.

"What is it?" Gon asked as sparks flew from the scouter. Bulma quickly removed it and placed it on the ground next to her.

"It was… around 350,000." Bulma explained "at least that's what it looked like when I took the scouter off." She knew that couldn't be right though, there was something off about this alien, something that she felt would be extremely dangerous if left unchecked. However, she couldn't do much at this point other than hope Gohan and Piccolo quickly resolved the situation.

* * *

"What do you say boy?" Frieza asked Gohan, who looked at Frieza with a confused and caution face. "Betray these fools and come with me, I could use a strong second in command, after Ginyu was… executed." They both looked at each other for a moment, until Gohan broke the gaze and stared off into the distance, seeing an image of Goku wearing a scouter, along with a red alien.

'_Look Cap'n! It's all seven Dragon Balls, right there!' _The red skinned alien pointed out, Gohan could not see the balls however 'they're_ all dug up!'_

'_How convenient' _Goku said, albeit in a strange, gravelly voice_._

The vision faded, and Gohan looked back over towards Frieza.

"I've killed countless millions, you know, _billions_ in fact. You seem to enjoy fighting; I could give you a full time job." Frieza offered, grinning as Gohan shook his head and looked over after hearing a familiar voice.

'_No, there's more' _Vegeta said, speaking to an apparition of Goku. Vegeta was coughing blood as he attempted to speak_ 'He killed our home planet…' _The voice faded and he heard it come back once more, in the same area. _'Please, destroy Frieza…_' Vegeta said, tears streaming from his face_ 'he made me what I am; don't let him… do it… to anyone else…'_

Gohan cringed and turned away, looking towards his master and the real Goku, wondering what he was truly there for. Had Piccolo been using him this whole time?

"Come now, I don't have all day." Frieza proclaimed, losing his patience. Gohan looked toward the ground. He didn't cry, he didn't want to. His mind was playing tricks again. It was time that this alien shut his mouth.

"Go to hell." Gohan said, rushing at Frieza and ramming his fist into the tyrants face, throwing Frieza's body a few yards before he grabbed onto the ground with his fingers and regained balance on one knee. Frieza growled, but quickly reverted to his smug smile.

"I don't take rejection very well, you know." Frieza quickly got up and began to power himself up, leaving Gohan to wonder how powerful this alien truly was. Gohan also powered up to his absolute limits, not sure what to expect from Frieza anymore.

The ground began to crater around both Gohan and Frieza, whose auras were engulfing them as a flame would engulf a tree. The lights were brilliant, and both Piccolo and Goku were in awe at how much power they had both been holding back thus far.

As they both finished powering themselves up, their aura's shrunk massively in size, down to barely being larger than the fighters were. "I see that you weren't using your full power either." Frieza smiled, slipping into an offensive stance. Gohan roared and rushed towards Frieza in a frenzy, sending kicks and punches at the tyrant, who despite being more powerful than the child was still being harmed by his attacks.

Every strike at Frieza's defending arms was wearing him down, and so Frieza decided to take matters into his own hands. The horned enemy grabbed Gohan's arm and casted him into the ground, quickly blasting him with an energy ball. To his great surprise, however, Gohan had dodged the attack and swept Frieza off his feet. Gohan jumped into the sky and thrust his legs towards Frieza's exposed body, but just before his boots could make contact with Frieza's chest, Frieza moved out of the way. The ensuing shockwave felt as if the planet was having a massive earthquake, although it only lasted for a few seconds. Gohan shot up out of the crater that he had made and was quickly caught off guard by an uppercut, sending him soaring through the air. Frieza took advantage of this and quickly appeared ahead of Gohan, ramming his leg into Gohan's chest, sending the boy crashing back to the ground, causing dust to cover the area.

Not letting up his attacks, the horned tyrant shot several blast of ki towards the dust cloud, fully expecting the boy to at least be caught off guard by the flurry of ki that was being sent his way. With each blast that hit the ground, more dust was being thrust into the sky, obscuring everyone's view of the situation.

"Damn it Piccolo! He can't win!" Goku shouted, "Let me help him!"

Piccolo shook his head.

Frieza waited for a moment, making sure that Gohan was dead.

"Ha! The child never even stood a chance!" Frieza gloated, "I am the most powerful being in the universe!" The tyrant cackled manically for a moment, until he was tackled by Gohan who had quickly emerged from the vast dust cloud surrounding the area.

Goku was shocked. "How?" He quietly asked.

"_You_ underestimated him." Piccolo smirked, causing Goku to doubt himself as a father even more than he already had.

Gohan crashed his fist straight into Frieza's gut, damaging the tyrant enough to flinch. In this moment of weakness, Gohan raised his arms towards Frieza's chest and released a massive amount of ki directly at Frieza, who had no time to react. The ball of ki sent Frieza flying through the air as he attempted to gain some semblance of control of the situation. Gohan wasn't about to let his advantage go to waste, however, and he followed up with a flurry of ki, sending them all towards the now recovering Frieza.

"He… he's doing it!" Bulma exclaimed, looking towards Lod, who seemed to be smiling.

Out of breath and energy, Gohan looked towards Frieza to see what kind of damage that he had done. The massive smoke cloud made it difficult to see how Frieza was faring, so Gohan made sure to keep his guard up just in case of a surprise attack.

A voice pierced through the black smoke filled sky.

"My my, you've damaged my armor."

Gohan's eyes burst open, unable to comprehend how anyone would have been able to survive an attack such as that. As the smoke finally cleared, Gohan could see that the majority of the left half Frieza's armor had been incinerated and destroyed.

Frieza descended towards Namek, landing quickly. Gohan followed suit and stared at Frieza, still attempting to figure out how he could defeat the powerful foe.

"What a shame, I would have killed my armor maker, but it seems you've taken the liberty of destroying my entire crew for me." Frieza shook his head "it doesn't matter, I don't need this pitiful armor anymore." Frieza clenched his fists and chuckled, "take this time to make any final wishes!" he shouted, a bright light erupting from Frieza's body, encroaching his outline, and the dissipating. Purple flashes of aura began to surround Frieza's body, and the tyrant began to shout and scream. No one was sure what exactly was happening at this point.

'What the hell is going on?' Piccolo asked himself, beginning to shield his eyes from the dust that Frieza's power was kicking up into the air.

Everyone looked in amazement as Frieza's body began to change. He was growing, his horns began to extend, and his muscular physique was growing as well. The armor on his body began to shed, falling off piece by piece as his body outgrew it.

The purple aura blasted upwards as Frieza screamed to the sky once more, growing even taller and more muscular, his horns curved upwards and the damage to his body was slowly fading. He only slightly resembled the thing that he used to be at this point.

As Frieza finally stopped growing, the purple aura dissipated around him and erupted in a flash of light, revealing a new, horrible form. The power that he was exerting was even more than anyone else had ever thought anyone could reach.

Looking around at the horrified faces of all he could survey, Frieza smirked and looked back at Gohan, who was scared and confused all at the same time.

"Ah, yes, my transformations." Frieza said, in a now noticeably lower tone than before "this is but one of many." He explained. Gohan wondered if he was telling the truth, or just trying to terrify him.

"You're lying! No one can be that powerful!" Gohan shouted, taking up a defensive stance.

"Oh, but what reason do I have to lie to you now?" Frieza questioned, Gohan looked rather confused "No, you've been entertaining thus far. I just want you to know how insignificant you are compared to me!" Frieza's new, loud and intimidating voice boomed with laughter, which was suddenly cut short as he blasted towards Gohan at speeds the boy could not have anticipated.

Frieza kicked the boy's side so hard that Gohan was sent careening into the horizon, straight into a mountain. Gohan coughed, having the wind completely knocked out of him. Frieza appeared before the child and picked him up by his long hair.

"You thought that you could stand up to the most powerful being in the universe?" Questioned the tyrant, who punched Gohan in the gut extremely hard. "You refused my offer as well!" Frieza shouted, punching Gohan once again, and this time Gohan coughed blood onto Frieza's arm. Looking at the blood, Frieza smiled. "And now you're getting blood all over me. Tsk, tsk, such a naughty little boy." Frieza threw Gohan into the sky and quickly raced ahead of him, crushing Gohan with a swift elbow to the stomach. Gohan tried holding on to consciousness, and with as much strength as he could muster, he regained his balance and zipped away From Frieza, who had been attempting to ram his knee into the boy's back. Gohan didn't get far before he crashed to the ground from exhaustion, coughing blood onto the floor as he laid on all fours.

"He's going to die!" Goku screamed at Piccolo, who shook his head once more.

"So be it." Piccolo proclaimed coldly. Goku was enraged, and powered up despite Piccolo's warning. Piccolo didn't stop Goku from rushing in to help Gohan, however.

"Kaio-Ken times ten!" Goku shouted, a red aura enveloping his body. Goku rushed forward as fast as he could, and reached Gohan before Frieza could land the finishing blow. Goku blocked Frieza's megaton slam with his forearms, which nearly broke his bones right then and there, but Goku refused to give in. The Saiyan pushed back and rammed his fist into Frieza's stomach, causing the tyrant to fly back and set his targets on Goku.

"You _dare_ interrupt my fight?!" Frieza shouted, landing back down to the ground. Goku ignored Frieza for a moment.

"Gohan, get back to Piccolo. And take this, it's the last one I have." Goku threw a senzu bean next to Gohan, who picked up the bean gently. Despite still despising his father, Gohan agreed and used what little energy he had left to land his body next to Piccolo, who seemed intent on watching Goku's battle with Frieza. Before Gohan could eat the bean, his body fell into unconsciousness.

Frieza stared at Goku for a moment.

"You look familiar, who are you?" Frieza demanded to know, Goku didn't ignore him this time.

"My name is Son Goku." The Saiyan proclaimed. "And you're never going to get away with trying to kill my son."

Frieza began to laugh, knowing now who this joke of a Saiyan truly was.

"You're that monkey that Raditz was supposed to bring back, aren't you?" Goku narrowed his eyes; he had had enough of this already.

"I don't care what I am." Goku proudly exclaimed "but I _will _stop you, no matter the cost!"

Frieza stopped laughing, but kept the smug smile on his face.

"Then you better be willing to pay with your life."

* * *

**How will Goku fare against the power of this demon? Will Piccolo be enough to stop Frieza if Goku fails? Find out in the next exciting installment of **_**Piccolo's **__**Choice!**_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	24. Chapter 24: The New Demon King

**Chapter 24: The New Demon King**

The wind rustled between the two fighters, both ready to strike at any moment. Goku balled his hands into fists and took up a fighting stance, not knowing how powerful this demon truly was at this point. Frieza loosed a chuckle from his lips, finally remembering why this person seemed to bring back a feeling of déjà vu. Goku was confused, not realizing at all why his opponent had his guard down when Goku clearly harmed him with his Kaio-Ken technique.

"Why are you so calm about all of this?" Goku asked, almost angrily. Frieza smirked and turned his back to Goku, who considered attacking. However, he stopped himself, feeling that if he used such underhanded tactics than he would be no better than Piccolo.

"I remember him, Bardock, the Saiyan who tried to kill me." Frieza explained. Goku's mind travelled back to Vegeta, whom had told Goku of his father.

"My… father?" Goku asked curiously. Frieza turned back to face Goku.

"Whoever it was, I killed him. Destroyed his entire planet in fact." The tyrant chuckled, reveling in the expression of sheer anger that Goku had adopted.

"You monster!" Goku shouted, causing Frieza to laugh even harder. "You destroyed an entire race of people? Why?!"

Frieza shook his head and grinned sadistically, "Because it amused me."

Goku had enough, this tyrant was even worse than Piccolo.

"How many people have you killed Frieza?" Goku asked in frustration and rage, thinking of all of the lives that this monster must have ended over the years.

"How am I supposed to know?" Frieza smugly proclaimed "I lost count a long time ago." The large demon began to laugh, a horribly evil laugh that pierced the quiet atmosphere and sent shivers down Goku's spine. "And why should I stop now? There are only two monkeys left, and I may as well finish what I started." Goku growled and clenched his fists as hard as he could.

"Kaio-Ken times ten!" He screamed into the sky, a powerful red aura surrounding his body.

"Kaio-what?" Frieza questioned, without enough time to properly defend himself. Goku flew towards Frieza with a tremendous speed and landed a direct hit on Frieza's left temple. The demon flew back a few meters, grappling the ground with his feet to slow himself. Goku rushed at Frieza once more, still in his Kaio-Ken state, and threw punches at Frieza who blocked and parried as many of the Saiyan's blows that he could, throwing a few punches and kicks wherever he could afford them.

"Stupid monkey, I'll slaughter you and your son just like I slaughtered the rest of your people!" Frieza screamed, landing a punch directly on Goku's stomach. Frieza had knocked the wind out of Goku, who bent with the blow and coughed. Frieza slammed his knee into Goku's face and sent him flying, chasing after the Saiyan in the sky. "It's been fun!" Frieza laughed, charging a large ball of energy and throwing it towards Goku.

"Kaio-Ken times ten!" Goku shouted, vanishing from Frieza's sight. The ball of ki flew away into the atmosphere. The tyrant looked around, not able to sense where Goku had vanished to.

"Show yourself!" Frieza demanded, still frantically searching.

"Right here!" Goku obliged. Frieza snapped his head around just in time to be met by a swift, yet powerful kick to the head from Goku. Frieza quickly spiraled into the ground, causing a huge crater in the ground to form. Dirt was kicked up into the sky as Goku readied himself for his signature blast.

"Kaio-Ken times ten!" He shouted, placing his palms behind his back and powering up as much as he could. "_Kame_-" a ball of energy formed from Goku's palms, everyone watched in anticipation as Goku continued to charge his attack "_Hame-_" The ki swelled in size and it was clear that Goku was going to go all out on this blast. Piccolo's jaw dropped.

"Goku! If you miss, you might destroy the planet!" Piccolo shouted towards the Saiyan, who ignored the Namekian.

"_**HAAAAAA!**_" Goku released his attack, sending it directly towards the dust cloud in which Frieza was inside of. Piccolo snarled, readying himself for an earthquake, when suddenly the blast blew away the smoke to reveal that Frieza was using a blast of his own to counter Goku's Kamehameha. The purple beam was coming from both of Frieza's hands, and it was clear that Goku's would eventually overcome Frieza.

"Damn it Goku, if you kill Frieza than this planet is done for!" Piccolo screamed at the Saiyan "and that means that everything we've been fighting for is for nothing!" Frieza used this to his advantage.

"Listen to your green friend!" Frieza shouted, struggling to speak and hold back Goku's blast at the same time. Goku thought for a moment and reluctantly agreed with Piccolo.

The Saiyan vanished from sight, allowing Frieza to overcome his blast and send it into the sky.

Piccolo sighed in relief, as did Frieza.

Goku reappeared on the ground, and Frieza flew out of the crater than Goku had kicked him into. They both stared at each other once more.

"I'm surprised; no one has given me such a good fight in quite a while." Frieza claimed seriously, no hint of smugness or anger in his voice. "In fact, it seems that you outmatch me in this form, as much as I hate to admit."

"This form? How many do you have?!" Goku growled, causing Frieza to chuckle slightly.

"If you want to find out, how about I show you?" Frieza said. Goku jumped forward quickly, powering up instantly to a Kaio-Ken times ten state.

"I don't think so!" He shouted, throwing a punch at Frieza who dodged and threw a punch at the Saiyan. Goku nimbly moved out of the way of the blow and rolled onto the ground facing Frieza, who quickly threw a ball of ki at Goku's face.

The Saiyan swatted the ball away, only to be met with a brutal assault of kicks and punches.

Goku could feel the Kaio-Ken state slipping away.

As the red aura died out, Frieza found an opening and took advantage of it. The swiftness left Goku's body and Frieza began to punch and kick Goku so hard that he had no time to react and power up into another Kaio-Ken, and so he tried to block and dodge as much as he could.

"Where's your strength now monkey?!" Frieza shouted. The tyrant rammed Goku's stomach with his knee, and then focused all of his power into his fists which he locked together and raised above his head. Frieza slammed Goku's back with such an extreme force that when Goku had hit the ground, a minor earthquake could be felt by everyone in the area.

"Oh no! Goku, get up!" Bulma said to herself, hoping that if worse came to worse, Piccolo would somehow be able to finish this monster.

Frieza grinned, and quickly began to power himself up.

Piccolo almost intervened, but knew that no matter how powerful Frieza could be that it was no match for himself.

Spikes quickly shot out of Frieza's back as he began to laugh, feeling the power course throughout his body. His head began to elongate to massive proportions, and the features on his face began to disappear, making him seem more monstrous than ever before. The shoulder pads began to elongate as well, jutting out to the side quickly, giving the tyrant a more intimidating appearance. More spikes began to protrude from the side of his head, and as the transformation stopped, Frieza's cackling stopped as well. The demonic looking Frieza then turned his sights towards Piccolo, who after feeling Frieza's new power wasn't so sure if it was a smart idea letting him transform.

"So, how do I look?" He asked the Namekian, who shook off his doubts and grinned in the face of the most powerful adversary that he had ever known.

"Ridiculous." Piccolo said, anticipating an assault from Frieza.

"How utterly jealous you must be of my power!" Frieza claimed, cackling as he spoke. Piccolo was about to charge at Frieza when they both heard something that instantly snapped their heads to attention.

"Kaio-Ken times _twenty_!" Goku shouted, blasting through the cloud of dust and attacking Frieza head on, punching the demonic being straight in the chest.

Frieza gasped momentarily, but regained his composure and grabbed onto Goku's head, throwing him across the sky.

Goku quickly adjusted himself and burst back into Kaio-Ken times twenty, throwing himself at Frieza once more.

"You're persistent, I'll give you that!" Frieza shouted towards Goku, pointing his fingers at the charging warrior and blasting miniature beams out of his fingers. The Saiyan rolled out of the way at the last second, stopping in the air to readjust his position.

"And you're annoying." Goku taunted, quickly throwing many balls of ki at his opponent. Frieza blocked all of them and swatted the last one away as Goku emerged in front of his face and rammed his fist directly into Frieza's face, blasting the demon back. Goku quickly followed and reappeared behind the flying demon, powerfully kicking him up into the sky. Goku once again disappeared and re emerged up above Frieza, charging an attack and quickly loosing it towards the monster.

"_Kamehameha_!" The Saiyan bellowed, blasting Frieza directly in the chest, sending him quickly crashing towards the ground. Frieza attempted to slow his decent to no avail, and ended up destroying the ground beneath him, pushing dirt into the sky as the beam pushed harder and harder against his chest.

"It… it has to be over!" Bulma said quietly, looking around to find that none of the others shared her optimistic view.

Goku's beam diminished, the Kaio-Ken had left him visibly shaken and he could barely hold himself up in the sky anymore, yet he still decided for one more push.

"Kaio-Ken times twenty!" He screamed, blasting off into the dust cloud. He could still sense Frieza's energy, and so could discern where his body was. Judging from the ki reading of the area, Goku threw a wild punch at Frieza, who had just began to get up from the beam assault.

Not being able to sense his energy at all, Frieza could only attempt to guess where Goku was and try to throw a punch or two. However, Goku was relentless, using the cloud of dust to his advantage and striking his opponent over and over again. Kick after kick, punch after punch, Goku could feel his grip on the Kaio-Ken state wearing off and with the dust cloud dissipating, it left him wide open for a direct assault. Fearing for the worst, the Saiyan quickly jolted out of the cloud, hoping that he had done enough damage to the tyrant to force him to stop fighting and give Goku a chance to regain his strength.

As the cloud disintegrated, Frieza stood in the center of the crater, with a face of mere annoyance.

In a moment of desperation, Goku called out to his bitter nemesis.

"Piccolo, please, I need your help!" Goku shouted, however, Piccolo, shook his head and smirked. Goku's heart dropped, he was on his own, and with no one to back him up, he knew there was no way he could possibly beat this monster. "Damn you…" Goku growled, looking back at Frieza who was laughing to himself.

"How amusing, maybe this green man isn't as bad as I thought he was." Frieza contemplated, looking back over towards Piccolo. "Of course, I'll still kill you, but you do amuse me." The tyrant let out a light chuckle before addressing Goku once more. "You know you can't win; now how about you tell me where the Dragon Balls are?"

"I'd never let you have the Dragon Balls!" Goku shouted "You embody everything I aim to defeat! Every malicious thing that you've _ever_ done to anyone, I'll unleash upon you tenfold!"

"Oh? And are you going to do that?" Frieza asked smugly, grinning at the obviously bluffing Saiyan warrior.

"Kaio-Ken times _twenty five_!" Goku shouted, straining his body to his absolute limits. The crimson aura around the Saiyan turned golden for a brief moment, but quickly shot back to its normal red color. Frieza backed up slightly as Goku blasted towards the tyrant, throwing earth shattering punches at the demon who could barely keep up. Every blow that Goku threw was denting Frieza's defenses, and soon Frieza couldn't handle the punches any longer.

The malicious alien screamed and sent a shockwave throughout the area, causing Goku to be pushed away as Frieza began to barrage Goku with massive amounts of ki attacks. The Saiyan quickly threw a small, concentrated ball of ki towards Frieza, who was too busy pelting Goku with ki to realize that the attack was heading towards him at an incredible rate. Frieza stopped his assault and attempted to dodge, but was hit directly in the shoulder.

Goku dodged nearly every one of Frieza's blast, but just before the barrage ended, his Kaio-Ken state petered out and he was a sitting duck. A blast collided directly with his chest, blowing apart his shirt.

"_Ah_!" Goku screamed, losing the energy to fly "No…" the Saiyan's aura completely faded, and his eyes closed, falling gently towards the ground.

After assessing the damage, Frieza could see that his left shoulder protrusion had been partially blown off.

"Damn you monkey!" Frieza shouted, holding his hand over the wound in a futile attempt to contain the bleeding.

* * *

"Oh no… Goku…" Bulma whispered softly, biting her lip to stop herself from crying. Lod looked solemnly at Bulma, but did not say a word.

Gon and Trokar looked on over the battlefield, seeing that Piccolo was preparing to fight.

"Piccolo still fight, Piccolo win!" Trokar grinned, knowing that if anyone could stop Frieza, it was Piccolo.

"You may be right, but…" Gon looked over towards Goku, who has badly injured and needed healing quickly. "I… should go and heal Goku and Gohan." Gon said, hesitating a moment before getting up.

"Please… don't let Goku die…" Bulma cried, making Gon uneasy.

"I… if Frieza catches me…"

"We don't have a choice!" Bulma screamed, fighting through tears "if Piccolo loses than everyone is dead!" Gon looked over once more and nodded confidently.

"I will go and heal them. Guru… please watch over me." Gon prayed, flying towards the injured Goku.

* * *

Piccolo stared at Frieza, who seemed to be more worried about his injury than Piccolo himself.

"I suppose I should have seen that coming." The tyrant said, turning finally turning his attention to the Namekian. "I suppose that you'll be wanting your shot at me now. If you don't mind I'd like to get this nasty would fixed up before I start any strenuous activity, I might get an infection." Taunted the grinning Frieza, whose skin began to glow purple.

"Oh shit!" Piccolo growled, quickly flying towards the now transforming Frieza, who was exerting so much energy that it made it difficult for Piccolo to get near him. Just as the Namekian was about to land a blow on Frieza, whose skin began cracking, a vast force of energy pushed Piccolo away. He tried once more with the same result, and finally he had begun to charge an attack.

"Special Beam Cannon!" Piccolo shouted, sending the beam directly towards Frieza's abdomen. The blast was inches away from Frieza's body when his skin shattered and a huge force pushed Piccolo's attack back, forcing him to abandon the beam and dodge out of the way of his own attack.

Where a monstrous looking alien had once stood, now in its place there was a small, smooth looking alien. The simplicity of the design made Piccolo double back, not expecting the form to be so… humanlike in appearance. Frieza looked at his hands, and then at Piccolo, who was eyeing Frieza in horror and amazement.

"Surprised are you? You should be." Frieza proclaimed, crossing his arms. "I haven't had to use this form in… oh I can't even remember how long it's been." Piccolo landed back onto the ground, crossing his arms as Frieza had.

"So this is your maximum power? It doesn't feel so special to me." Piccolo said, causing Frieza to chuckle.

"This is merely a fourth of my full power; I won't have to use all of it to defeat the likes of you." Piccolo shook his head, catching a glimpse of Gon healing Goku out of the corner of his eye.

"Is that so?"Piccolo asked, in an attempt to buy more time for Gon "and what if I told you that I knew that I could destroy you?" Frieza only laughed at Piccolo's suggestion.

"Let me tell you who I am, Namekian. I am Lord Frieza, heir to the Cold Empire and ruler of the Northern Quadrant of the galaxy!" Frieza proclaimed, clenching his hand into a fist. "I have slaughtered billions, destroyed planets, and crushed rebellions! I have destroyed all who have opposed me in the past!" The rant continued as Frieza reveled in his own glory "I am the son of King Cold. _I am_ the strongest in the universe! You, Namekian, are all that stands between me and eternal life. I will kill you." Piccolo scoffed and grinned to himself, enraging Frieza.

"How about I tell you who I am, princess." Piccolo taunted.

"You insolent fool!" Frieza shouted, "You cannot possibly rival me in any way!"

"I am the son of Demon King Piccolo, master of all, second to none! I was born of his mind and spirit; I was born of pure evil!" Piccolo shouted, causing Frieza to step back in a mix of fright and confusion. "My sole purpose was to _kill_; I was created only for this one purpose. I will not let a pompous idiot like you stop me now! I will kill you, and then I will kill again, and again, and again until _I'm _dead! You say that I cannot rival you in _any_ way? How many times have you reveled in a kill?" Piccolo asked, his fists shaking in fury and bloodlust "How many times have you slashed a man's guts open just to feel the warmth of blood on your face?" Piccolo now had a maniacal look of sadism on his face, as if he was reliving all of the murders that he had ever committed in his life. "Have you ever gone so long without killing that you are in physical_pain_?!" At this point, Frieza was visibly disturbed, trying to come up with something… anything to say at this point. "You can claim anything you want, Frieza, but you will _never. Ever. _Share the bloodlust that I do. And that is why I will kill you here today, because I was _born _to kill, and because _you_ are my prey!"

Piccolo clenched his fists so tightly that they began to bleed.

"You… what the hell are you?!" Frieza asked in a frightened tone. Piccolo lifted his bleeding hand in front of his face.

"I _am_ hell." Piccolo licked the blood from his palm and grinned widely, showing his extremely sharp incisors.

The new Demon King was finally ready to destroy this pathetic opponent.

* * *

**With Gohan unconscious and Goku out of commission, will Piccolo and his newfound power be able to stand up to the powerful tyrant Frieza? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	25. Chapter 25: A New Plan

**Chapter 25: A New Plan**

Piccolo wasted no time in acting upon his brutal speech. The Namekian rushed forward at a blinding speed, catching Frieza completely by surprise. The tyrant had no time to react as Piccolo crashed his fist straight into Frieza's face, sending him flying backwards and landing in a mountain. The sadistic Namekian wouldn't let his opponent recover, however, and rushed forward again, throwing two medium sized balls of ki at the mountain, obliterating it and blasting smoke in all directions. Piccolo locked on to Frieza's energy and rammed his leg into the unsuspecting foe, sending him flying out of the dust cloud.

Piccolo still wasn't done with Frieza, and seeing him almost recover he sent another medium sized ki attack his way, rushing after the tyrant once more.

Frieza dodged the ki attack as well as Piccolo's fist, aiming where the Namekian would be and throwing a ki attack his way.

Piccolo vanished before the energy hit him, repapering behind Frieza who also disappeared before the Namekian could assault him. Instead of continuing his assault, Frieza reappeared relatively close by on a plateau of land, fists clenched in rage.

"How have you gotten so much stronger?!" Frieza shouted towards his opponent, who had already noticed Frieza's appearance but decided not to act quite yet. "You weren't nearly this powerful when you assaulted me the last time!" This sudden increase in power flustered the tyrant, who had not felt such pain from anyone since he had fought his father. However, despite Frieza's insistence to the contrary, King Cold was still much more powerful than Frieza wanted to admit, and so he knew that this Namekian could be much more of a threat than he ever imagined.

"Perhaps I used a wish, perhaps not." Piccolo implied, cracking his neck to the left "doesn't really matter, I'll kill you and then destroy this damn planet." The Namekian then tilted his neck to the right, cracking his neck once more as Frieza looked on, perplexed.

"You intrigue me Namek, why would you want to destroy your home world?" Frieza asked, still not letting his guard down.

Piccolo thought for a moment, about everything that had happened since he had killed Goku for the first time. He thought about whom he was, why he was created, what he was to become… This planet appalled him. The Namekian race was not his race, he would not admit to being one of them, and certainly would never be proud of where he originally came from. The traditions and values of these people were not his, and he felt no sympathy for them at all. No, this was not his planet, he was not born here, and this is just a stepping stone for something much greater.

"Namek is an affront to who and what I am." Piccolo finally declared, proudly and within hearing distance of Gon, who was in the middle of healing Goku. Gon cringed in frustration and disgust. "I am no Namekian; these people are not my people. They care for each other, their planet, their ways. These things appall me, in the end the Namekians all died for a pointless cause that they could have avoided if they weren't too damn ignorant to use the Dragon Balls themselves!" Piccolo shouted, stunning Frieza with his words.

"And why should I care for this planet or its people at all!?" Piccolo continued, thrusting his arm to the side in emphasis "I wasn't born here, I certainly won't die here. I feel nothing for anyone on this rock! All that I care about is getting out of here and killing again, and I'll start with you!" Piccolo disappeared and immediately appeared in front of Frieza, who threw a punch at the Namekian and missed. Piccolo thrust his fist straight into Frieza's abdomen, damaging him slightly. Before Piccolo could land another punch, Frieza pushed his arms against Piccolo, thrusting them both away from each other.

The two quickly began to attack one another once more, throwing punched and kicks wildly, dodging and blocking whatever they could in order to keep their advantage.

* * *

While the two titans fought, Gon finished healing Goku, who opened his eyes and shot up, looking around to find Gon staring directly at him.

"Welcome back Goku." Gon said, turning away to look at Gohan. "I'll heal the boy now, he took the worst beating." Before Gon could fly towards Gohan, Goku spoke up.

"Wait, Gon, right?" Goku asked, the young Namekian nodded his head. "I have some questions… let's hide behind that mountain so Frieza won't see us." The two of them quickly rushed behind the mountain, safely hidden from view.

"What is it that you wished to ask?" Gon said, looking at Goku who sat down against the mountain.

"The dragon of your planet-"

"Porunga." Gon interrupted.

"Right, Porunga… does he have limitations?" Goku asked. Gon seemed confused, not knowing exactly how to answer the question.

"What exactly do you mean by 'limitations'?" Gon heard a rather loud explosion and quickly looked around to try and find the cause.

"Don't worry about that, worry about what I'm trying to ask you. I won't let anyone hurt you." Goku reassured the freighted child, who calmed down slightly. "The dragon of my planet, Shenron, he has some very specific limitations" Goku explained, "for example, he can't bring someone back from the death twice, and he can't bring someone back in a mass revival wish if they died over a year prior to making the wish." Gon immediately picked up on the Saiyans meaning after the examples had been made.

"Of course, now I understand perfectly." Gon proclaimed "Porunga is an extremely powerful dragon, but he also has his limits. My elder taught me about Porunga before Frieza and his men invaded, so I know of some of his powers and restrictions. For instance, he cannot revive more than one person at a time." Gon explained, frustrating Goku.

"Damn it, I thought I could bring everyone back…" However, Gon had a bright spot that made Goku's face light up.

"However, despite the fact that he can't bring more than one person back at a time, he can revive someone who has been revived before, or so I've heard from my elder." Goku immediately thought of Krillin, who he had thought was completely gone now that he had died twice.

"Are you sure about this?" Goku asked the Namekian, who shook his head from side to side.

"I only know what I've been told. My elder was a very wise and respected one, right next to elder Moori and of course grand elder Guru." Gon sighed "It's a shame that Porunga will not be able to revive all of my people."

Goku looked at the Gon and could see a single tear stream from his eye.

"Hey, don't be sad, I'm sure that I can get Shenron to bring your people back!" Goku said, reassuring the Namekian child, although unsure if he could in fact keep his promise with Piccolo now stronger than ever. "Let me contact Kami, he's the keeper of the Earths Dragon Balls." Goku said, closing his eyes and concentrating on King Kai's energy signal.

'_King Kai, are you there?'_ Goku asked telepathically, King Kai responded.

'_Of course I'm here Goku, how dare you cut my transmissions every time I try to talk to you!'_ King Kai complained, _'I should hang up on you right now!'_

'_No! I'm sorry King Kai, I've been pretty busy since I've been here on Namek!' _Goku explained.

'_Yeah, yeah, getting your butt kicked by the one person I told you to steer clear of. You Saiyans and your fighting pride, I swear you'll be the death of me.' _King Kai joked, _'what did you want this time Goku?'_

'_Can you connect me to Kami? I have a favor to ask him.' _Goku said, intriguing the Northern Kai greatly.

'_What for? Is it because of the Dragon Balls?' _King Kai asked _'because if it is, I already know that they can't be used for another few months. Roshi used them just a while ago to bring you back, remember?'_ Goku shook his head in anger.

'_Darn, you're right.' _Goku thought for a brief moment, opening his eyes and looking at Gon, who was intently watching the battle between Piccolo and Frieza from behind the mountain. "Hey, Gon." Goku said, turning the attention of the Namekian. "Please heal Gohan, I'm sure Piccolo could use the help." Gon nodded and rushed off to the injured boy, beginning the healing process. Goku closed his eyes once more and continued to speak to the Kaioshin.

'_Can you connect me to him anyway? He might know something we don't.' _King Kai nodded in agreement.

'_Of course, patching you through now.' _Goku waited for a moment before he finally heard Kami's voice.

'_Hello, is that you Goku?' _Kami asked, clutching his staff as he sensed all that was happening to his counterpart.

'_Yes, this is Goku. It's great to hear from you again Kami, I didn't get a chance to say hi since I was revived.' _ The Saiyan said in earnest. _'But I have a very serious question I need to ask you.' _Goku paused to make sure that Kami was ready for the question.

'_Of course Goku, I'm happy to help in any way I can.'_ Kami assured, hoping that he could somehow still be of assistance.

'_Is there a way that I could somehow use the Dragon Balls of Earth now? If we don't revive the people of Namek soon, I don't think Piccolo will be inclined to allow that to happen when he gets back to Earth.' _

Kami thought for a brief moment, knowing that there indeed was a solution, but he also attempted to come up with some sort of plan for if the Dragon Balls were to be used again.

'_I know of a way that the Dragon Balls may be used again, but what will you do once you wish all of the people of Namek back to life?' _Kami asked. Goku was at a loss of words.

'_I'm not sure; it isn't safe here, not with Frieza and Piccolo.' _Goku said, listening for Kami's advice.

'_No, it isn't. I know what Piccolo plans to do if he defeats Frieza, he intends to destroy Namek.' _

'_What?!'_ Goku clenched his teeth in frustration. _'Why would he do that?!'_

'_He is deranged, Goku' _Kami explained _'you must know this by now.'_ Goku nodded his head in agreement _'I have a plan, however, and I think it may just be the best chance that the Namekians have to be safe.'_

'_Alright, let's hear it.' _Goku said, wondering what this plan could be.

* * *

Meanwhile, Piccolo and Frieza were both in the middle of an extremely fast pace game of cat and mouse, only they were playing both roles at once. Whenever one would appear, the other would disappear and vice versa. Neither of them were landing any hits, and so Frieza decided that he would change the game.

The tyrant blasted off in a different direction, forcing Piccolo to follow quickly behind. Frieza then turned in midair and stopped on a dime, grabbing Piccolo from out of the sky. Piccolo struggled to break free of the bear hug, but Frieza used an immense amount of power to hold the Namekian in place.

"This silly fight is no longer fun." Frieza said to Piccolo, who was using all of his strength to try and break free from Frieza's grip. The alien's muscles grew slightly as he crushed down of Piccolo's body, squeezing him so tightly that Piccolo's insides were beginning to be smashed together. The demon king howled in pain as he tried once more in a futile attempt to escape, but Frieza's grip only grew stronger the more he struggled.

In a desperate attempt, Piccolo opened his mouth wide and bit Frieza's exposed neck, giving just enough of a distraction for Piccolo to break free of Frieza's grip and punch the tyrant in the face, sending him spiraling downwards towards the water. A large splash could be seen as he hit the water.

Piccolo moved around uncomfortably, attempting to shift his innards back to the way that they were, fortunately for him, his Namekian physiology was more flexible than that of a human, and so he adjusted relatively quickly. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to defeat Frieza so easily, he threw off his turban and cape, dropping them into the water below.

After a few moments had passed, Piccolo was extremely on edge. He knew that the punch he threw at Frieza wasn't enough to seriously damage him, and so it was only a matter of time before the tyrant wound be back again. Sure enough, a huge explosion from the water quickly grabbed Piccolo's attention as he turned and saw that Frieza had evaporated most of the lake he rose up out of, a look of sheer rage upon his face.

"You bit me!" Frieza shouted. He clenched his fists as he screamed towards his foe "You _fucking _bit me!"

"Oh I'm sorry, we're there rules in this fight that I wasn't aware of?" Piccolo said sarcastically, enraging the tyrant even further.

"When I'm done with you no one will ever even know you _existed_!" Frieza screamed, rushing at Piccolo who threw two ki attacks at the alien. Frieza swatted them both away and was met by a kick to the face, only this time Frieza was ready. He grabbed Piccolo's leg with his tail and threw him to the ground, quickly rushing under the Namekian and crushing his back with a powerful knee thrust.

Piccolo rushed out of the way of the next attack and stared at Frieza, who looked over to see where Piccolo had gone. With no warning at all, Piccolo placed his hands in front of his eyes and shouted; "Solar Flare!"

A bright light engulfed the area, and Piccolo rushed directly towards Frieza.

To his surprise, he felt Frieza's energy quickly move. Not able to see, but still sensing Frieza, Piccolo could tell that Frieza had either learned to protect his eyes from this trick, or that he had ran away in order to protect himself from an assault from Piccolo.

As the light dissipated, Piccolo could see that Frieza was grinning towards Piccolo in a show of smug pride.

"You didn't really think that would work on me twice, did you?" Frieza asked, laughing as Piccolo growled in frustration.

The Namekian rushed towards Frieza, who readied himself for another assault. Both of the fighters were taken by surprise when out of nowhere, Gohan showed up and kicked Frieza directly in the back, sending him towards Piccolo. The Namekian punched Frieza in the face as Gohan quickly followed up his attack, throwing a punch at Frieza. However, Frieza rushed out of the way and looked astonished at the boy whom he had thoroughly beaten. It didn't matter, even with the child's help, both of them together could not beat the most powerful being in the universe, and Frieza was sure of it. The child Saiyan and the Namekian rushed at Frieza, and the three locked themselves in a quick paced close range fight.

* * *

Kami began to explain his idea to Goku, who was listening intently _'If we are able to use the Dragon Balls, then I need you to wish everyone from Namek back to Earth, in order for them to be safe. If Piccolo of Frieza destroys Namek, all of their souls will be trapped in that place and we will have to individually wish them all back.' _Goku nodded.

'_These Balls give us three wishes, and we still have two left.' _Goku explained, Kami nodded as Gon flew over towards Goku, landing next to him.

'_Good, now, I must explain how we can use the Dragon Balls before the allotted time for them to return to use. Goku, it is hard for me to say, but either Piccolo or I must die in order for the Dragon Balls to be used once more.' _Goku shot back in surprise and confusion.

'_But Kami, if you or Piccolo dies, than we can't even use Shenron to bring everyone back! The balls will be inert!' _The Saiyan explained, hoping that Kami wasn't losing his mind.

'_Of course Goku, but if I am brought back to life, than the Dragon Balls will be able to be used once more.' _After Kami explained this idea, Goku began to piece together the puzzle.

'_Oooh, now I get it!' _Goku claimed, smiling '_you want me to bring you back with the Dragon Balls of Namek, and then wish all of you off planet with the final wish!'_

'_Precisely, but there is a problem. Piccolo is immortal now that Gon has wished so from the eternal dragon of Namek.' _Goku cursed and shook his head, opening his eyes and finding that Gon was close by.

'_Maybe he didn't…' _Goku hoped. "Gon, I have a very important question to ask." The Namekian turned his attention towards the Saiyan.

"Of course, what is it that you wanted to know?" Gon asked, wondering what could be so important.

Goku sighed and asked his question. "What did you really wish for?"

Upon hearing this question, Gon hesitated to answer. He didn't know if he should tell this Saiyan what exactly he wished for, but ultimately deemed the Saiyan worthy of this knowledge.

"I... I panicked." Gon said, turning away from Goku "when he asked me to wish immortality upon him, every fiber of my being told me not to."

"There's a very good reason for that." Goku stated with contempt. Gon continued.

"I wasn't sure exactly what to say, if I hesitated he would have doubted me, so I wished for the first thing that came to my mind." The Namekian said, with shame clear in his voice.

"What exactly did you wish for?" Goku asked as Gon turned around, tears streaming down his face.

"I wished…" Gon hesitated once more, shame overwhelming him "I wished that I was immortal…"

Goku looked on towards Gon, who was now crying harder than before.

"Gon… don't worry about it, we can reverse it if you feel so badly…" Goku attempted to reassure the Namekian, who continued to cry.

"You don't understand. I misused the greatest power of our people. I have shamed the Namekian race, I have shamed myself!" Gon cried even harder now than before, trying to calm himself. He was greatly surprised when he found that Goku had embraced him.

"Gon, you did the right thing." Goku assured the boy "Because you didn't give Piccolo his immortality, I can bring back your people." The Namekian child sighed and stopped crying. Goku held Gon at the shoulders, looking at him as he spoke. "Watch the battle, and tell me if something goes wrong, okay?" Goku asked "I've got to talk to someone, but I'll be back soon." Gon nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes, going back to observe how Gohan and Piccolo were doing.

'_Kami, as it turns out, Gon wished for immortality for himself and not for Piccolo.' _Goku explained.

'_Excellent news! Now, I need to ask that you hold off Frieza while Piccolo and I are dead. You must make sure that Gon is able to wish back Piccolo, and that he is safe while doing so.' _Kami said, however, Goku had more than a few concerns.

'_Piccolo won't just lie down and die, will I need to make sure he dies somehow?' _Goku asked, wondering if Kami had a better idea.

'_No, that would only make Piccolo even angrier with you. I will… have someone kill me, so that Piccolo does not know what is going on until he is brought back.' _

'_Wait, Kami, you don't have to do that!'_ Goku exclaimed, not wanting to force Kami to go through that.

'_I've been through worse than death, Goku. Trust me. I will tell you when I am ready to be killed, for now I shall have Gorth, the Saibamen, and Mr. Popo collect the inert Dragon Balls so that we may waste no time in making a wish.' _Goku nodded and sighed, still wishing there were a better way. _'Good luck to you Goku, I will be ready in just a short while.'_

The Saiyan shook his head and looked into the bright blue Namek sky, wondering if this plan would even work.

'_Hey, Goku, still there?' _King Kai blurted out, snapping Goku back to attention.

'_Yeah, of course King Kai.' _Goku said, closing his eyes to concentrate.

'_I heard everything; sounds like you have everything worked out quite nicely.' _Goku nodded in agreement.

'_I just have to word the wish in a way that everyone is I need to is brought back.' _The Saiyan explained.

'_Right, I'll think of a way to bring back as many people as possible.' _King Kai proclaimed, _'and Goku, a few friends want to have a word with you.'_ Goku was surprised by this.

'_Friends? Is Krillin there?' _Goku asked, almost ecstatic.

'_You bet buddy!' _Krillin said telepathically through King Kai. Goku almost teared up right there, he hadn't even seen his best friend in over a year.

'_Krillin! It's great to hear your voice again!' _Goku exclaimed, _'how have you been? Training with King Kai is great huh?' _

'_Yeah, if you like lame jokes then sure, King Kai is great!' _Krillin teased.

'_Hey, if you don't like my jokes then you can get off my planet!' _

'_Hey now! I was just kidding!' _Krillin explained, _'Chill, like Frieza!'_ Goku could hear King Kai laughing at the lame joke through the telepathy, and Goku almost laughed himself.

'_Alright, alright, you can stay.' _King Kai chuckled, still giggling from the joke _'you always were funnier than Tien.'_

'_Hey, is Tien there too?' _Goku asked the Kai, who nodded.

'_Of course, and so is Yamcha.' _The North Kai explained _'But Yajirobe, he wasn't good enough to keep his body.'_

Goku shook his head _'Well he better start being a little less lazy when I wish him back then.' _

'_You've got that right.' _Tien said, now wanting to speak to Goku. _'It's great to talk to you again.'_

'_Hey, Tien! Great hearing from you, I'm sorry I couldn't do anything when Piccolo refused to give you that senzu bean.' _The Saiyan sighed in shame.

'_Don't worry about it, I'm stronger than ever now that I'm training with King Kai!' _Tien noted, _'and besides, I'm just glad that Chiaotzu is alright.'_

'_Yeah, I made sure of that. He should be with master Roshi right now.' _Goku explained, reassuring the three eyed human.

'_Good to hear, but now I think Yamcha wants to talk.' _

'_Hey Goku!' _Yamcha shouted, excited to talk to his friend again _'you alright? Frieza kicked your butt pretty bad.' _Goku nodded.

'_Yeah, I'll be alright, we have someone who can heal us. Hey Yamcha, do you and the others know about the plan?' _Asked Goku, who was eager to tell his friends if they didn't know already.

'_Yeah, we all know the plan. Everyone's getting wished back huh? Even us?' _Yamcha asked eagerly, wanting desperately to see Bulma again.

'_Everyone but Krillin. Sorry buddy, I'll be able to wish you back with the Namekian Dragon Balls though.' _The Saiyan said, intending to keep that promise no matter what.

'_Don't worry about it, I'm sure I can stand another year of training with this guy. Hopefully.' _Krillin claimed, hoping what he said was true. After only a few moths this King Kai was already starting to make him go bonkers though.

'_Good, now I've got to go, I'm waiting for Kami to contact me. It's been great talking to you all!' _Goku truly meant it too; he hadn't heard from any of his friends in so long, it was truly great to be able to speak with them once more.

'_Same to you man! Kick some ass!' _Yamcha encouraged, clenching one of his fists.

'_Yeah! If anyone can beat Frieza it's our Goku!' _Krillin declared, making Goku smile.

'_Don't forget about Piccolo. Once you're done with Frieza, kick his ass too. For us.' _Tien requested. King Kai chimed in as well.

'_You're the best hope for Earth, Goku. Don't let us down.' _Goku nodded, sure that he could, that he had to defeat Frieza. And after that, Piccolo would be next.

'_I won't.'_ Goku replied, cutting the transmission.

* * *

The battle between Gohan, Piccolo and Frieza seemed to be going well. They both had Frieza on the ropes and they knew it, every punch they landed, every kick that connected was wearing the tyrant down. Frieza, however, was far more optimistic about his chances.

The next punch that connected with Frieza was a ferocious one from Piccolo that sent Frieza flying backwards. The tyrant regained his balance and roared into the sky, deciding that now was the time to get serious. These two fools were quite the bother, and now that they had shown their strength by working together, half-assing this battle would not be enough.

Gohan and Piccolo both rushed at Frieza, whose muscles began to expand. Both of the fighters were pushed back by a large field of energy similar to the one that stopped Piccolo from attacking Frieza before he transformed. Almost immediately, Piccolo expected another transformation to occur.

"Gohan, blast him with everything you have now!" The Namekian ordered. Gohan nodded and unleashed a massive amount of ki while Piccolo charged his signature attack.

"Special Beam Cannon!" Piccolo growled, the beam piercing through the energy and hitting Frieza dead on. As the beam pierced through, so did Gohan's energy attacks, and soon the tyrant was bombarded with wave after wave of energy blasts, blanketing the area with a thick smoke. Despite their best efforts, both of them could feel Frieza's energy growing more and more, to such a level that Piccolo was now extremely frightened.

"This is ridiculous!" Piccolo shouted, ending his attack and ordering Gohan to stop his.

As the smoke cleared, the two could see that Frieza was now much more muscular than before. It wasn't a transformation so much as a powerful buff, and Piccolo wasn't sure which was worse at this point. It was clear now that Frieza was more powerful than the two of them, and now Piccolo had seen why the tyrant was so dangerous. Now, even with his massive power, Piccolo was dwarfed by Frieza's, and he knew it. Gohan looked over at Piccolo, who kept his focus on Frieza the whole time.

"Don't even think about running, Gohan." Piccolo barked.

"Never." Gohan replied, turning his attention back to Frieza, who was smirking at the two of them.

"You must know you can't defeat me. I am the pinnacle of power in the galaxy! How can you hope to stand up to me?" Frieza laughed, extending his arms to the side in a display of his impressive muscular form. "I've had enough of this little game! You will all die, along with this planet!" Frieza shouted, laughing into the sky as he powered an attack. Both Gohan and Piccolo blast off to opposite sides, attempting to divert Frieza's attention to one of them so the other could attack from behind.

Frieza stopped gathering energy and quickly rushed towards Piccolo, grabbing his leg and throwing him into the sky. Gohan attempted to attack Frieza but missed when the alien rushed forward and decked Piccolo directly in the stomach, forcing the Namekian to cough blood and crash to the ground. Gohan could barely see the movement, but he knew that without Piccolo he would be doomed. Frieza zoomed towards Piccolo's body at an immense speed, but was intercepted by a huge blast of ki sent from Gohan that pushed Frieza back slightly. The blast was obviously very taxing on the boy, as he was now panting, and Frieza could see it.

"Now now, you'll get your turn." Frieza taunted "Let the big kids play for now." The tyrant chuckled and charged a large energy attack, throwing it directly at Piccolo. The Namekian quickly rose up and blasted as much energy as he could at the large ball of ki coming his way. At first, it seemed it was not deterred from its course, but Piccolo could tell it was now slowing.

"Masenko!" Gohan shouted, guiding his massive energy attack under the ball of ki, helping his master push the ball back. Frieza growled, seeing the boy still had enough energy to stop his attack, and decided that now would be a good time to end the boy's life.

"Say goodbye little boy!" Frieza shouted, rushing after Gohan, who continued to assist his master.

"KAMEHAMEHA!" Goku shouted, blasting Frieza in the chest with his power ki attack. Frieza regained balance and looked down directly at Goku, who seemed to have made a full recovery from his beating.

"Why don't any of you just stay down!?" Frieza shouted, now rushing at Goku. However, he was met with a swift and powerful kick to the face from Piccolo, who had successfully sent Frieza's death ball soaring into the outer reaches of space.

The kick only stopped Frieza midair, enraging the tyrant who grabbed Piccolo's neck and began to crush it. Piccolo quickly grabbed Frieza's arm, attempting to claw at it, but to no avail.

"Like a mouse caught in a trap." Frieza chuckled. "What was all that about killing me?" The tyrant strengthened his grip, causing major pain to the Namekian. Gohan attempted to strike at Frieza's back, but with his free hand Frieza struck the boy and sent him flying backwards.

Goku looked only for a moment, and then turned away in contempt. _'Sorry Kami, I hope you're ready for this…'_

"I'm done with you." Frieza proclaimed, snapping Piccolo's neck and letting him fall to the ground.

* * *

**With Piccolo dead, will Goku and Gohan be able to hold Frieza off long enough for Gon to wish him back? Will Kami's new plan work? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**On a side note, I-Am-So-Original on deviantart has created a special Tenkaichi edit of this story! It can be found on deviantart, just type I-Am-So-Original into the search bar and you should be able to find it.**

**I recommend looking at his other edits, as they are all very high quality and have to do with various DBZ fanfics!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	26. 100th Review Update and More!

**100th Review Update and More!**

A very fond hello to all of you who have read up to this point in _Piccolo's Choice_!

First of all, let me apologize to those of you who were expecting a new chapter. This is merely an update post, and Chapter 26 shall be posted Friday, September 14th as was originally planned. Secondly, let me thank all of you who have read my story and who have offered their help, criticism, and support through reviews, edits and other fantastic means! It means so much to me that you've all stuck around and been so helpful, and now my story finally has 100 reviews thanks to all of you! Each and every one of you has helped me in more ways than you can imagine, you've helped me improve as a writer, as well as made me want to continue this story till the very end! This page is dedicated to all of you, but special thanks are in order for certain people who went above and beyond to help me and make this story what it is today.

**SSJ2 Silven**, my editor, has done an amazing job thus far in helping improve the way my chapters are written, as well as helping me to improve as a writer. She is a wonderful person and I'm proud to have her on the team.

**I-Am-So-Original**, (AKA Kakarotto Ka Power Level Kya Hai on the Dragon Ball Multiverse forums) who created a wonderful Tenkaichi edit for _Piccolo's Choice_ that includes heavy symbolism of Gohan and his actions throughout the story, which reflects what_ Piccolo's Choice _is truly is about. His contribution inspired me to go back and begin editing former chapters to improve the story overall. If you wish to see his wonderful art, type I-Am-So-Original into deviantart. I recommend taking a look at his work, as it is all very high quality and great to admire, as he has also added edits for other DBZ fan fics as well.

**American Vigor**, the creator of Honor Trip, who inspired me to create_ Piccolo's Choice_ in the first place. His story of how Cell became a good spirited individual made me think of other ways in which the DBZ universe could have changed, which led me to create Piccolo's Choice! If you haven't yet read this amazing story, I highly recommend it.

Finally, I'd like to thank **Salagir and Gogeta Jr.**, the creators of Dragon Ball Multiverse. This web comic that takes place after the end of DBZ inspired me to continue writing my story after I had a very long hiatus from writing. Their story and art made me want to tell my own story again, which led me back to _Piccolo's Choice_.

With the special thanks out of the way, I'm pleased to announce that _Piccolo's Choice_ now officially has 100 reviews! This calls for a special occasion, however, I have yet to figure out what I will be doing in order to commemorate. All that I can say for sure is that you all can expect a special Chapter very soon, it may or may not be canon to the main story, but I will try to make it as enjoyable as possible for all of you. If you would like, tell me in a review or a PM what you would like to see as a 100th review special and I will take into account your ideas!

One final thing I would like to say before I go is that I have fully edited and added to Chapter 1: The Start of the End. I chose to add many parts to the beginning of the chapter to show why exactly Piccolo hadn't changed in the five years since Goku had beaten him in the Worlds Martial Arts tournament, as well as adding additional scenes to showcase how differently Piccolo would have acted towards Goku and his friends had he still been the evil demon that he was when he fought Goku five years ago. This change was added in order to increase the overall quality of the story, as well as to give readers a better introduction into _Piccolo's Choice _so that they would be enticed to read more.

I do plan on editing many former chapters as well, so stay on the lookout for any updates that I give you at the bottom of the page of the main story!

Once again, thank you all for your support, I couldn't have gotten this far without all of you.

_**Yours truly,**_

_**Saucemonkey**_


	27. Chapter 26: Rage

**Chapter 26: Rage**

Kami rested against his cane, sensing the battle raging between Gohan, Piccolo and Frieza. He knew that soon he would be dead, but he hoped that Piccolo could hold out until Mr. Popo and Gorth had arrived. It was obvious that Piccolo and Gohan were losing badly, and the guardian of Earth was losing hope that anyone could possibly stand up to this tyrant, but Kami refused to give up hope. He had told Mr. Popo and Gorth that everything would be alright after they had brought everyone back with the Dragon Balls, and he dearly wished that Goku would somehow find a way to destroy Frieza, just as he had saved the day so many times before.

It saddened Kami greatly that all he could do now was give advice and watch, as once he had been a powerful fighter capable of defeating even the toughest of Earth's enemies. Now, he was nothing more than an advisor. He had thought about the situation with Piccolo many times over, how he should have ended his counterpart's life all those years ago when he had the chance. And yet, when Piccolo had been spared by Goku's heroics, the demon repaid him by turning his own son against him.

'Poor Gohan… I have failed you.' Kami thought to himself, reflecting on his past actions with the boy. When Gohan had first arrived at the lookout, Kami sensed that there was great conflict within the child, conflict that Kami sought to help with. 'You were so helpless…' Kami had used a powerful magic that he had learned many years ago, a magic that would induce visions upon those whom he casted it upon. The guardian sought to use this power in order to make Gohan see the error of his ways, and how his life would be like if he had chosen the path of light instead of darkness. However, it seemed that Kami had broken the child more than he had saved him.

'I'm a failure' Kami chastised himself 'all I've done in my life is release a monster upon the universe!' The old Namekian shook his head and attempted to calm himself. He wasn't done with his part, however, and he intended to bring back those who were lost. Innocents that had been killed by Piccolo, Frieza and Gohan could now be brought back to life, but the wording of the wish still had to be made clear as to bring back everyone who needed to be brought back. Kami had thought a great deal about this, but had ultimately come up with a way in order to do just what he wished to do. It was only a matter of time now before Piccolo was dead, and with him, Kami.

Kami's attention was caught immediately when Frieza grabbed Piccolo's neck, and he knew that time was very short. In a rush, he attempted to contact Mr. Popo.

'_Mr. Popo, time is running out, and I won't be here when you get back.' _Kami explained, cringing as he sensed Piccolo's neck being crushed _'gather the inert balls at the lookout, Goku will wish me back soon.' _

'_I understand Kami.' _Mr. Popo replied, his voice reflecting his sadness.

Kami felt excruciating pain as Piccolo's neck was snapped, screaming as he dropped to his knees, his cane landing beside him with a thud. Kami looked up into the sky and admired it for a moment, hoping that Goku could indeed bring him back to life so that all of the people that had been killed could be restored to life.

'I refuse to fail this time…' Kami thought, his body fading into nothingness.

* * *

Gohan had crashed into a mountain when Frieza retaliated against the boy, causing rubble to fall on top of him. The blow had left Gohan severely weakened and gasping for air, but he refused to let his master die. With what little strength he could muster, Gohan pushed the rocks out of the way, laying his eyes upon a horrific sight that stole his breath away.

Piccolo, whose neck had been snapped, was now falling to the ground. The entire planet went silent, time slowed and all the boy could do was watch as the one person whom he could count on fell slowly to the ground. His master, the undefeatable Piccolo, was now dead because he had failed.

"M-master-" Gohan choked out, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. The boy could only think about how Piccolo had taken him in when his father had abandoned him. Trained him when no one else saw his potential. If it hadn't been for Piccolo, Gohan would still be the worthless child that Goku saw, or so Gohan thought. Sadness swept over the child, tears were rushing down his cheeks as he heard his master's corpse hit the ground. He was alone now, and he knew that Goku wouldn't let him wish Piccolo back. No, it was all over, Frieza had won, and Gohan knew it.

A chuckle broke Gohan's thoughts; it was from Frieza himself, the one who had slain the only person that Gohan cared for.

All of his thoughts immediately changed from sadness.

The only thing he could think about now was death.

"And there goes my only opposition!" Frieza laughed into the sky "this is why all bow before me! Lord-"

"_**FRIEZAAAAAAAA!**_" Gohan screamed into the sky, immediately gaining the attention of all those in the area. Gohan's aura exploded, turning the mountain behind him into dust as he rose into the sky, screaming at the top of his lungs in rage and frustration. Goku lost his breath when he felt the power emanating from his son, it was rising rapidly with no real reason to it at all.

'What the hell is going on?' Goku asked himself, looking up to find that Frieza too was incredibly confused. The Saiyan turned to Gon, who was equally amazed.

"Gon, I need you to do something for me." Goku said, Gon nodded, knowing what needed to be done.

The boy continued to slowly rise into the air, his aura still expanding and exploding with power. His screams were agonizing, and it was clear that he had never felt this way in his entire life. Gohan had been conditioned for hatred, but never before had he felt it in this way. It all built up until now, this one single moment where he would destroy this enemy and exact revenge upon his fallen master. The entire are grew dark around the fighters, and Frieza looked up to find that the clear blue color of the sky had been replaced by a more dark and foreboding one.

A clash of thunder smashed into the ground, followed by another, all surrounding Gohan. The boy continued to scream upwards, both his hands clenched tightly into fists. His muscles expanded slightly as the power surged within him, a golden aura shooting briefly from all sides of his body. His hair had also briefly turned gold, which surprised Frieza greatly.

'What in the galaxy is going on?' Frieza thought to himself, clenching his teeth as he watched the thunderbolts strike the ground around the young boy.

Gohan's screams stopped briefly as he was forced to close his mouth, clenching his teeth tightly, trying to concentrate his energy. His face was pained, enraged, and twisted, showing signs of extreme frustration. The boy pushed himself to his absolute limits, attempting to push every single bit of power he had into himself. Gohan began to scream once more, his iris's disappearing as his hair began turning golden once more.

Every last bit of energy had been pushed, every single ounce had been used up, and now Gohan was still calling for more. He pushed his body harder than he had ever pushed it before, harder than even Piccolo had pushed him during training. He had to kill Frieza, for his master, and for himself.

Lightning clashed once again with Namek as Gohan raised his arms up above his head in a cross, his golden hair now shining brightly as he screamed into the sky.

Bring his arms down quickly, his aura shot in all directions, and the boy's screaming ceased. His irises were still completely gone, and Gohan's muscles had expanded greatly. He was breathing heavily, teeth clenched with a raged expression across his face. It was clear to Goku that Gohan had gone over the edge, he had completely and utterly lost himself, and this new transformation had given him more power than ever.

Frieza looked on with astonishment, but only for a moment. He then began to chuckle softly, leading into laughter.

"You think you can beat me just because you changed your hair color boy?" Frieza shouted over to Gohan, who was still fuming with rage. "I'll kill you just like I killed that pathetic Namekian!" Gohan hadn't held back of his own accord thus far, he had held back because his body was still not used to this kind of power. All of it had entered so quickly and so strangely that despite the fact that all Gohan wanted to do was annihilate Frieza, he had to stay in place and allow for the power to adjust in his small body.

"I'll give you one final chance!" Frieza shouted towards Gohan, who was still immobile "surrender now, and I'll make your death quick and painless." The tyrant waited for a response from Gohan, who's only audible response was some very heavy breathing.

Becoming rather impatient, Frieza decided that he had enough of this. "Fine, so be it." Frieza grunted, rather annoyed at the whole situation. "I came here to gain immortality and all I've done so far is killing a few Nameks! Honestly, I need to f-"

Gohan's fist rammed straight into Frieza's face, sending Frieza flying through the sky. The boy had moved so quickly that even though Frieza had his eye on him the whole time, his movements were so rapid that the alien couldn't keep up with his movements. Not even hesitating for a moment, Gohan screamed and caught up with the surprised Frieza, punching him with megaton force over and over as Frieza lay completely helpless.

With one final planet shattering attack, Gohan grabbed Frieza by the neck, throwing his other arm back and quickly bringing it down on the tyrant's chest.

Frieza landed with a loud crash into the ground, and Gohan's face warped into a sadistic smile. It was short lived however, as Frieza immediately showed up behind Gohan and landed a brutal kick to the child's back. Gohan didn't go very far before he regained his composure, blocking Frieza's next assault and locking together with him in a flurry of punches and kicks that not even Goku could follow.

* * *

Gon went back to where Piccolo had forced Gon to summon Porunga the first time, relieved to find that all of the balls were still in place. The small Namekian knew exactly what he was to do, but he still felt as if he was misusing the power of the great dragon. This was, after all, the most sacred of all things on Namek, and Gon was about to use them to bring back a murderous traitor. However, if it was the only chance he had to bring back his people, Gon wouldn't hesitate for a moment in bring back Piccolo.

The Namekian sighed, looking at all seven Dragon Balls once again before clearing his throat.

"Takkaraputo popurunga pupirittoparo!" Gon shouted into the sky, raising his arms as Porunga shot out of the Dragon Balls, materializing in the sky. The arrival of the Dragon turned the already gloomy sky even darker, causing thunder to strike all around him. Bulma and the Saibamen had no idea why the sky was turning so dark, but they were so intent on watching the fight with Gohan and Frieza that they kept their mouths firmly shut. Once the dragon had finally finished materializing, he spoke in his booming voice;

"**YOU WHO HAVE SUMMONED ME, YOU NOW HAVE TWO WISHES THAT YOU MAY USE.**"

* * *

As Frieza and Gohan continued their fight, something caught Frieza's eye.

"What is that?!" He shouted, letting his guard down long enough for Gohan to crash his fist into Frieza's abdomen. Frieza shot back and grabbed Gohan's right fist that was headed straight for the tyrants face, as well as his left fist which was heading for his stomach. The two pushed each other backwards, attempting to gain a power advantage over the other.

The aura of both fighters grew to intense levels, with Gohan's golden aura clashing with Frieza's dark purple one. Gohan's face contorted as he bared his teeth, clenching them together tightly in an effort to focus all of his power. Wrinkles of anger and frustration shown all around both fighters faces as they tried to push each other back, Frieza having the upper hand slightly.

"**YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED.**" The great dragon of Namek said, his voice exploding into the quiet air, catching the attention of the struggling Frieza.

"_What?!_" Frieza shouted, losing his edge just enough for Gohan to push the tyrant back, firing a few quick ki blasts that collided with Frieza. Before the smoke could clear, Frieza was already off as fast as he could muster to the dragon, hoping desperately that he could get his wish granted. "Dragon, grant me-"

Gohan tackled Frieza and wrapped his arms around his waist, giving him a bear hug. Frieza couldn't speak, and so his wish was interrupted as Gohan began to crush his insides. The alien blasted Gohan in the face with his elbow, sending the raged young boy reeling in pain, hands on his face in agony. This didn't last long however, as Gohan returned with even more fury, throwing a punch at Frieza's back. Frieza quickly turned and caught the punch straight in the abdomen, sending him back a few feet before he stopped midair and returned a punch at Gohan, who dodged the blow and returned punches of his own.

While the two locked themselves once more in this struggle, a certain Namekian quickly shot awake, eyes widened as he looked around himself. Suddenly, he had realized what had happened. He had died.

"No… this couldn't have happened…" Piccolo quietly told himself, raising himself to one knee as he continued to look at his hands. "Gon…" The Namekian said, clenching his fists, he was about to scream at the top of his lungs when a two massive powers gained his attention. Piccolo looked up into the sky as saw his pupil, Gohan, fighting with Frieza on almost even terms, his hair a brilliant shade of gold and his muscles slightly larger than usual. The dragon Porunga had also caught his attention, and immediately Piccolo wanted to know what the hell was going on. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his mortal enemy Goku, intently watching the battle between Gohan and Frieza. Piccolo could have ended him right there, he desperately wanted to, but he held back and landed next to the Saiyan.

"What the hell is going on Goku, why is Gohan so much more powerful? And why the hell are you using the Dragon Balls?!" Piccolo quietly shouted at Goku, who continued to watch Gohan and Frieza as he spoke.

"I don't know what happened to Gohan; he just got a lot more powerful." Goku explained, not sure exactly what had happened himself. Goku took his eye off of the battle and set them on Piccolo, a deep look hatred upon his face "and if we hadn't used the Dragon Balls, you'd still be laying in the dirt. I suggest you show a little appreciation." Piccolo growled and stopped himself from punching Goku.

"I owe you nothing, you insolent fool." Piccolo insulted, Goku ignored the Namekian and turned his attention back to the fight.

"Say what you want Piccolo, but we have a plan, and I'm not letting you ruin it." The Saiyan proclaimed, enraging Piccolo greatly.

"Let me guess, you want to bring everyone back don't you?!" Piccolo asked, causing Goku to look towards the ground.

"Yes, and if you try to stop me, I will kill you." The usually calm and happy Saiyan was now seemed much more intimidating, scowling at Piccolo as the Namekian began to chuckle.

"You expect me to be afraid of you Goku?" Piccolo laughed, getting into a fighting stance "I bet you won't even last a minute against me!" The demon king let out a horribly evil laugh, but Goku was not impressed.

"I'm willing to make that bet." Goku retorted, getting into a fighting stance also. The two looked at each other closely, wondering who would make the first move when Gon shouted at the top of his lungs;

"_Stop!_" Gon stood not 20 feet away from the two adversaries, who didn't dare take their eyes off of one another. "Don't you see that there are bigger problems?!" The small Namekian asked, nearly crying as he spoke. "You two may have a history, I understand, but your son is fighting for his life Goku!" Upon hearing these words, Goku lost a breath, but still trained his eye on Piccolo, who wasn't nearly as interested in the battle as he was with the remaining wish.

"Listen to him Goku, go help Gohan, and let me use the last wish for what is rightfully mine." Piccolo's words struck at Goku's heart. He desperately wanted to help Gohan, but he needed to bring the people who had died at Frieza's hands to be brought back. As Goku looked over, Gon nodded, seemingly to tell Goku to help Gohan. The Saiyan growled and hesitated for a moment before letting go of his fighting stance, blasting off to get a better view of the fight in case he needed to intervene. 'I hope you have a good plan Gon.' Goku thought, trying not to think too deeply about the implications of leaving Piccolo alone with the one who had denied him his wish of immortality. As Goku watched Gohan fighting Frieza a voice came into his head.

'_Goku, thank you for bringing me back to life.' _Kami telepathically told Goku, who feigned a smile.

'_No problem, Kami. Have you gathered the Dragon Balls yet?' _Goku asked, hoping that Kami's plan would work.

A brief pause frightened Goku slightly, thinking that perhaps the balls were still inert.

'_Yes, I've just counted them and all seven are here, ready to be used.'_ Goku heaved a sigh of relief, wiping sweat from his forehead.

'_Have you figured out a way to word the wish so that everyone who we need to bring back are returned to life?' _The Saiyan wondered, hoping that there was a way to somehow bring Yamcha and Tien back along with the Namekians.

'_Indeed I have Goku, although I am uncertain if it will be the best wish to make.' _Kami said, causing Goku to become greatly confused.

'_What were you going to wish Kami?'_ Questioned Goku, who was still intently watching Gohan and Frieza fight.

'_I found that if I word the wish in such a way that everyone killed by an evil entity was brought back to life, then all Namekians would be returned to life, as well as your friends.' _Kami explained, _'however, this will also bring back any evil people that Piccolo or Gohan had killed before.' _Goku sighed and shook his head _'I'm also not sure that anyone killed by Gohan will be brought back, as he is not truly evil.'_ Goku nodded at Kami's words, reassured that there was still some hope for his child.

'_Do it Kami, I can deal with the evil people that Piccolo killed when they're wished back.' _Goku assured the guardian, who sighed and nodded.

'_I'll soon make the wish, be prepared to bring everyone on Namek to Earth.' _Kami told Goku, who added an interjection.

'_Everyone but Gohan, Piccolo, Frieza and I, right?' _

'_I need you on Earth Goku, there were some powerful people that will try to destroy the earth if they're left unchecked.' _Goku shook his head in disappointment, but understood that it was for the greater good. He just hoped that Gon would be able to get everyone off Namek before Piccolo became too enraged.

* * *

Piccolo and Gon stood before the dragon, with the smaller Namekian too frightened to speak. Piccolo turned to him and shook his head in anger and disappointment.

"You could have lived kid, but instead you decided to go against me." Piccolo explained, walking slightly forward toward Gon, who backed away as Piccolo approached. "You want to know what I do to people who go against me?" the demon asked, still inching closer and closer to the terrified Gon. The smaller Namekian only shook his head from side to side, still unable to speak. "I torture them, Gon. I make sure they wish they were never born." Gon gulped, now wishing that he had wished for anything _but_ immortality. "But you, you denied me my _immortality!_" Piccolo shouted clenching his hands into tightly balled fists, his face exploding with rage. Gon shot back in terror as Piccolo took a large step towards the frightened child. However, the demon's face returned to normal, and he sighed. "You're lucky I don't have time for you." Piccolo said, holding out his arm towards Gon, blasting the Namekian with an incredibly powerful ki attack. The child screamed and landed on his back, the ki attack had pushed him several meters back, dragging the body along the ground. Piccolo wasn't sure why Gon's body wasn't incinerated, but he also didn't have time to deal with the brat. This time Piccolo would make the wish himself.

Piccolo knew of a version of the Namekian tongue that he had used with Kami more than five years ago, although after 300 years he didn't know if it was exactly the same as the tongue that Porunga understood. Although the Namekian wasn't entirely sure if it was the dragon would accept it, he knew that he couldn't count on anyone else but himself if he wanted to wish for immortality. Piccolo turned to face the dragon Porunga, who patiently waited for the next wish. As best he could, he used a dialect that he thought Porunga may be able to understand.

"Grant me immortality!" Piccolo shouted in his bastardized version of the Namekian language. Porunga didn't say anything, and if Piccolo didn't know any better he would have thought the dragon to be confused, but he waited until finally, Porunga replied.

"**I CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOUR TONGUE; IT IS NOT THE TONGUE OF MY CREATOR.**" The voice boomed over the area, catching Frieza's attention once more.

"Damnit!" Piccolo shouted, knowing that he now could not have his wish granted from this pathetic dragon. Piccolo paced back and forth, growling and mumbling under his breath as Porunga watched at observed. The demon had seemed to have lost his composure, cursing and swearing quietly to himself, when suddenly he exploded. "Fuck you dragon, you speak in galactic but you only reply to pure Namekian tongue?!" The enraged Namekian screamed, insulting the great dragon. "All I ask for is immortality, not a big wish, but you… damn this fucking planet!" Piccolo screamed into the sky, gaining many people's attentions, including Frieza's.

'Is that…?' Frieza's train of thought was interrupted by Gohan, who punched the tyrant into the face. Frieza retaliated with a quick kick to the stomach and rushed down to Porunga, attempting to get a better grip on the situation. Sure enough, he recognized Piccolo as the Namekian he had killed mere minutes ago.

Frieza only delayed killing Piccolo so that he could wish for immortality himself.

"Dragon, I wish for immortality!" The tyrant said, not gaining a response from the dragon at all. Suddenly, Gohan came up behind Frieza and grabbed his tail, spinning him in the air and throwing him high into the sky, unaware of Piccolo because of his simple minded rage.

Piccolo sighed in relief, shaking off his anger and frustration; wondering if now would be a good time to help the fight between Gohan and Frieza. He wasn't sure if Gohan had enough power, and so he thought of ways in which he might be able to help his pupil gain an advantage over the his opponent.

Piccolo was so lost in thought that he hadn't felt or heard Goku landing behind him next to Gon. In fact, he in his rage, he had failed to notice that not too far away, many of Frieza's men had been revived by the wish that Kami had made. Skriatch was among those who were brought back to life. The Saibamen looked around for a moment and saw all of the soldiers surrounding him, and he also felt Piccolo nearby. Quickly, the Saibamen rushed away, not wanting to be killed again.

Goku pushed Gon's head up, shaking him and whispering for him to get up, as to not attract Piccolo's attention. Slowly, the child's eyes began to open, deep pain setting in from the blast that Piccolo had inflicted upon him. Goku quickly place his hand over the Namekians mouth, covering his screams.

"It's ok Gon; I won't let him hurt you again." Goku reassure the child, who nodded and sighed. Goku released his hand from Gon's mouth and looked up towards the dragon, knowing that Piccolo had not had his wish granted. "I need you wish everyone on Namek besides Frieza, Piccolo and Gohan…" Goku stopped, wanting very much to stay and watch Frieza's destruction. "and… me." The Saiyan whispered quietly, enough so that Gon could hear.

"No, you go." Piccolo said suddenly, surprising Gon and Goku. The Saiyan immediately took up a fighting stance, surprised that Piccolo had his guard down. "There's no point in you staying here, go back to Earth. Gohan and I can destroy this pathetic fool." Goku looked absolutely confused, wondering why Piccolo had suddenly had a change of heart. "I'm not doing this out of the goodness in my heart, if you must know." Piccolo explained, "I can't use the dragon, and it's obvious to me that Gon is immortal now. Just get out of here before I decide to kill you Goku. Besides, if Gohan and I do fail, I need someone to keep my planet safe just in case." The Namekian instantly blasted off, leaving Goku and Gon shocked.

After a few moments, Goku nodded and turned to Gon.

"Do as Piccolo says, wish everyone back to Earth besides Frieza, Piccolo and Gohan." Goku ordered. Gon nodded and struggled to his feet, still in excruciating pain from Piccolo's attack. The child Namekian walked over to the great dragon Porunga and finally made his wish.

"[Oh great dragon, I beseech you, please bring everyone on Namek to the planet Earth, all but the ones known as Frieza, Piccolo and Gohan!]" As Gon finished his wish, Porunga made a slight groaning noise, followed by his eyes glowing a bright shade of red. Finally, he spoke;

"**YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED.**"

Everyone in the area saw and heard the voice of the Dragon, all of Frieza's soldiers not knowing what the hell was going on at the time. Out of nowhere, they began to disappear, one after another, until none of them were left. They had all been teleported to Earth.

"_No!_" Frieza screamed, bashing Gohan with a punch to the face and racing once more back to the dragon. "If I can't have immortality, than no one can have anything!" He charged a huge ball of ki and sent it straight at Porunga, whose form began to dissipate. The ball of ki was sent straight through the dragon, who had reverted into a mist like form and then shot straight into the Dragon Balls, shooting them across the planet.

Goku noticed as Gon disappeared, and took one final look at Piccolo, who had landed on a mountain top.

'Next time I see you, I'll end it.' Goku thought as he vanished, having been teleported back to Earth along with everyone else.

* * *

**Will Gohan's new power up be able to destroy Frieza? Or will Piccolo and Gohan fail? And what will happen on Earth now that the evil people that Piccolo had killed are currently residing there? Find out next time on _Piccolo's_****_ Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	28. Chapter 27: Revival

**Chapter 27: Revival**

Goku quickly materialized in a large, open wooded area. With him were many faces he didn't recognize, along with the Namekians, who had all been successfully transported, including Gon and Guru himself. Not surprisingly, all of the Namekians who had been brought back to life were astonished that they had been revived, as well as shocked to see that they had been transported to a different world entirely. Along with the Namekians, many of Frieza's men had been brought back, including four distinctly powerful warriors that Goku decided to keep track of. One was a relatively large purple alien with horns on his head, another was a small red humanoid alien with white hair, and the last one with their armor's insignia was a very small green alien with four eyes. The last soldier wasn't as powerful as the other three, but he was notably strong among the rest of the grunts, and so the Saiyan wanted to keep his eye on the strange looking dark purple alien as well.

There were also some faces he recognized that had been transported back to Earth, such as Bulma, Gon, and some of the Saibamen that Piccolo had been ordering around. Goku expected chaos to erupt among the group, but it seemed that everyone was so confused by what was going on that they temporarily ignored the others around them, with the notable exception on the purple alien with horns, who almost immediately began giving orders to his men.

"I don't know exactly what just happened," Ginyu shouted, causing all Frieza's men to pay attention to him "but Frieza's orders stand! These Namekians must be destroyed!" All of the men cheered and were about to begin an assault when Goku shouted into the crowd as well.

"There will be _no_ killing today!" The Saiyan yelled into the sky, roaring with power that destroyed many of the grunts scouters. Ginyu slowly turned to face Goku, who was looking menacingly at the captain. The purple alien grinned, cracking his neck to the side.

"I guess we'll start with you then!" He threatened, "Jeice, kill him." Ordered the captain, Jeice nodded and flew towards the Saiyan. He effortlessly dodged the red skinned aliens attack and rammed his fist straight into Jeice's stomach, causing him to vomit blood, as well as forcing his eyes to bulge nearly out of their sockets. Jeice's body skidded across the ground at incredible speeds, knocking down many of Frieza's man before it finally crashed into a very sturdy tree. Ginyu, who had followed Jeice's movements, quickly turned to face Goku, whose face was contorted with anger. With no warning at all, the Saiyan sped towards Ginyu in a flash, ramming his knee straight into his torso, causing him to fall into unconsciousness almost immediately. Goku shot back and landed on the ground in front of all of the people who had been teleported to the area, looking around to find that he had everyone's attention. His face quickly changed from one of menace to a more benevolent one.

"Hello everyone!" He shouted to the crowds, causing some of Frieza's men to wave at the Saiyan. "My name is Goku, and as you can plainly see, I'm stronger than all of you." No one in the crowed disputed the claim, not after seeing what he did to the famous captain Ginyu. "So don't try anything or I'll have to knock you out, just like I did to that guy." Goku said, pointing towards Ginyu. As he looked around, most of the faces of Frieza's men were contorted in shock. "Understood?" Goku asked, almost all of Frieza's soldiers nodded in agreement. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have something I need to address." The Saiyan turned from the group and concentrated on four particular individuals…

* * *

Amongst the barren wastes, three men's eyes shot open at the same time. Yamcha and Tien quickly rose up and brushed themselves off before feeling a familiar power. Vegeta was in a state of shock. He had absolutely no idea what had just happened, considering the last thing he remembered was talking to the Namek before blacking out. As soon as his muscle allowed him to, the Saiyan was back on his feet, staring down the two humans that were cautiously observing him. One he recognized quite clearly as the one who he crushed whilst in his great ape form, while the other he hadn't been able to fight. Off in the distance, the three of them heard a quick shuffle, and then a blur moving behind a rock. Vegeta also knew who this idiot was.

However, the prince wasn't concerned with him now. He intended on figuring out why he had suddenly been brought back from death when he had made it so abundantly clear that he was hell bent on destroying Earth. Vegeta turned his attention to the three eyed human, who looked much more menacing than the one in orange.

"Hey, you, three eyes" Vegeta remarked, causing Tien to grunt "where the hell is that Namekian, or Kakarot for that matter?" He shouted, irritating both of the humans.

"Why should we even tell you? You came here to kill all of us!" Yamcha replied, clenching a fist and thrusting it in the air towards Vegeta defiantly.

"Yet in the end I only managed to kill that fat bastard hiding behind a mountain over there!" Vegeta growled menacingly. Both Tien and Yamcha took up fighting stances.

"We should kill you right now!" Tien shouted towards the Saiyan, Yamcha nodded his head in agreement, readying himself for battle. However, a familiar voice chimed in just before they were about to attack.

'_Guys, whatever you do, don't attack Vegeta!_' Goku telepathically told both Yamcha and Tien, who grunted in response. '_Please, bring him to my location. I'll explain why I want him alive later._' Both of the humans looked at each other and nodded begrudgingly.

"Guess it's your lucky day Vegeta, Goku wants us to bring you to him instead of beating the tar out of you." Tien said snidely, Yamcha laughed at the comment. Vegeta, however, didn't find the statement amusing.

"I don't take orders from a low class Saiyan, and you two will bow before me just before I end your lives!" Vegeta roared, his aura shooting outward as he began to power himself up. Yamcha and Tien looked at each other and grinned, the former bandit pointed at himself and nodded, as did the other human.

"We've been doing some training, Vegeta." Yamcha boasted, getting in a fighting stance "Even learned a few things from a Kai, too." Yamcha's aura too grew to a great level, his power seeming to match Vegeta's.

Annoyed, the prince blasted off towards the arrogant human, throwing a punch that Yamcha blocked, followed by another punch that the human was also able to block. Vegeta flew back and had a look of astonishment upon his face.

"You, you're even stronger than the Namekian!" Vegeta stated, causing Yamcha to chuckle "But I saw you die! How have you gotten stronger?!" Yamcha shrugged, smiling as he did so.

"Doesn't really matter, does it?" Yamcha claimed, "after all, how could a pathetic human like me rival the great prince of all Saiyans?" This comment enraged Vegeta beyond words. He wouldn't be made a fool of by this worm, he would show this fool what it meant to mess with the greatest warrior in the galaxy!

Vegeta rushed at Yamcha again, who dodged the Saiyans furious attacks. The human seemed to not even be putting any effort into the fight, gliding around Vegeta's attacks like they were nothing. With every missed attack, Vegeta's expression grew into one of rage and contempt, wanting nothing more than to destroy this human and regain his pride after being killed by a pathetic Namekian. The Saiyan switched his plan and shot up into the sky; Yamcha quickly followed and finally went on the offensive, throwing punches that Vegeta could block. The two were locked for only a few seconds before Vegeta was able to deflect one of Yamcha's arms and strike him in the abdomen. The human flew back a few feet before regaining his composure, not taking his eyes off of Vegeta for a second.

The Saiyan quickly loosed many balls of ki at Yamcha, who deflected many on them into the ground below. Tien didn't seem to mind, as he allowed them to fall all around him, deflecting those that came near. Vegeta quickly realized this tactic wasn't working and decided to finally use his signature move; he shot up above Yamcha, who only looked at Vegeta with a smug face from below.

"Let's see how smug you are when I send you everything I've got!" Vegeta shouted, thrusting both of his arms behind his body, palms facing outwards. "I am an elite warrior! You are an amateur who needs to be taught his place!" The prince screamed, rage fueling his attack as he charged it. A powerful purple aura surrounded Vegeta as his body surged with energy, gathering it from deep within to destroy this weakling who attempted to challenge him. It unnerved him greatly that his opponent stood still, despite the imminent attack that would obliterate both him and his planet. "There's no way you can stop this!" Vegeta claimed, beginning to motion his hands down towards Yamcha.

"_Galic Gun!_" Roared the prince, who thrust his palms towards the unflinching human. A massive purple energy wave blasted quickly at Yamcha, who calmly raised his arms and opened his palms to deflect the attack. 'What an _idiot_!' Vegeta thought, putting much of his power in this one attack. As the energy blast collided with Yamcha's palms, the human grunted slightly upon impact. The pressure of gravity, as well as this immense attack was seemingly too much for orange clad human. Vegeta laughed as he saw his attack push the human back, he knew that he had won this fight.

However, a sight took the breath straight from Vegeta's lungs. His Galic Gun was being pushed away from the planet and no matter how much energy he threw into the attack, it continued to be pushed away. In one final grunt of frustration, Yamcha began using Vegeta's energy against him, pushing his own attack directly back at the Saiyan. Vegeta tried to push the energy attack back towards the human, but to no avail.

Vegeta abandoned the attack, letting his Galic Gun soar into the sky as he quickly looked down towards the smiling human. The Saiyans eyes grew and his teeth clenched in frustration and anger.

"I will _not_ be defeated by a mere _human!_"

Yamcha shook his head, "I don't have time for this, I've gotta go see Goku." He shifted into a martial arts stance, seemingly readying for a final strike.

Vegeta's expression turned quickly from one or rage to one of fear as he saw Yamcha's aura turn red.

"Kaio-Ken!" The human shouted, exploding with power. Yamcha grinned at Vegeta briefly before attacking. 'Finally, I can put my technique to good use!' "Wolf Fang Fist!"

The human sped towards the Saiyan at speeds that his mind couldn't comprehend, thrusting his leg first at Vegeta, landing a hit directly on his face. Yamcha proceeded to thrust his palms at Vegeta's head, causing the Saiyan to fly back a bit with each blow. Finally, to finish off his ultimate technique, Yamcha thrust both of his palms together, blasting Vegeta straight in the face, sending him flying towards the ground at immense speeds. As he hit the earth, a crater formed and it was clear to the two fighters that Vegeta was out cold.

Yamcha's aura faded as he landed next to Vegeta's body, picking it up and throwing it over his shoulder.

"That must have felt good." Tien commented. Yamcha smiled and nodded, feeling like he had accomplished something.

* * *

Goku had finally gotten everyone calmed down by the time Yamcha and Tien arrived with Vegeta. However, he wondered where Yajirobe was.

"Hey guys! Great to see you, so uh… where is-"

"He's behind us, couldn't keep up." Tien explained to Goku, who nodded and smiled.

"Sounds like him alright." The Saiyan said, looking around to find that everyone but the Namekians were paying attention to him. "I wanted to wait until everyone was here before I explained what was going on." Both of the humans nodded, turning towards the unconscious Vegeta.

"Want us to wake him up?" Yamcha asked, Goku tilted his head to the side in thought, and quickly came to a decision.

"He works for Frieza, I think. I we might as well wake him and the other two up." Goku proclaimed, looking back over at captain Ginyu. The Saiyan walked over to the purple alien and shook him slightly at first, but after a few seconds he had to shake him a bit more violently. After that turned up no results, he turned to the Namekains.

"Can one of you please heal this guy?" Goku asked politely, none of the Namekian people looked very keen about the idea. One of them stepped forward, however.

"Are you sure?" Gon asked, Goku nodded and the Namekian child said no more. He walked quickly to the alien and raised his hands over Ginyu's body. The healing process took only a few seconds, as the damage hadn't been too severe.

Ginyu's eyes opened slowly, the first thing he saw was Goku's smiling face.

"Hey there sleepy head!" The Saiyan joked, hoping that this alien would have a better attitude now that he knew that Goku was much more powerful than him. As Ginyu rose, Goku motioned towards Jeice, and Gon quickly rushed towards the red alien to heal him.

"You gave me quite the beating." Ginyu reluctantly admitted, grinning slightly.

Goku was about to speak when Vegeta began to cough, having been woken up by Tien.

"C-captain Ginyu?!" Vegeta coughed out, rising to his feet slowly. He was both amazed and horrified to see this immensely powerful being, and even more surprised to hear him say how he had been defeated by a lowly warrior such as Kakarot. Ginyu was less than happy to see the arrogant prince.

"Oh, it's you. I can see you you've been getting your ass kicked lately." Ginyu grinned. Some of the bystanders began to laugh, not at Vegeta, but at Ginyu for his hypocritical humor.

"Speak for yourself!" Goku retorted, causing others to begin laughing as well. Even Vegeta briefly smiled. Ginyu looked around to find that even Guldo was chuckling.

"Shut up Guldo!" Ginyu quietly shouted at the green alien, who muffled his laughter behind his hands. Ginyu turned his attention to Goku once more, inching closer to him. "I'm sorry about trying to kill everyone." The horned alien apologized, not truly meaning a word of what he had just said "perhaps we can start over." Ginyu put his hand out towards Goku, signaling for a hand shake. Goku was about to go for it when Vegeta shouted.

"Kakarot, _move_!" The prince shouted, almost instinctively, Goku began to dodge out of the way as Ginyu opened his mouth.

"Body _change_!" Out of Ginyu's mouth came a very light, transparent beam that Goku was able to avoid, sending it off into the distance. Missing his target caused Ginyu to sigh and fall back, looking at Vegeta in contempt. "You little rat!" He shouted, almost ready to strike "You work for Lord Frieza! Why would you help this fool?"

Vegeta grinned as Goku began to fully grasp what had happened. "I never liked you or your pathetic warriors Ginyu." Vegeta explained, leaning back on a tree "At least Kakarot is a Saiyan." Goku nodded and turned toward Ginyu, staring him straight in the eye.

"I know your trick now, try anything like that again and I will kill you." The usually gentle Saiyan threatened, causing Ginyu to gulp hard, knowing that he had no chance of winning a fight with this particular Saiyan. Noticing that everyone was awake and paying attention, Goku decided that now would be a good time to explain the situation. He turned away from the group and walked over towards a rock, jumping up on top of it to get a better view of whom he would be speaking to.

Goku cleared his throat, and began to speak to the groups; "Everyone, now that I have your attention I can explain why you're all here, and what's going on." Those who weren't interested in what Goku was saying now became very intent of listening to his every word. "You see, almost every one of you has, at some point, been killed." The Saiyan explained, seeing confused faces amongst the masses of Frieza's soldiers. "I'm sure that a lot of you don't have any idea what's going on, but the basic gist is that you were wished back using the Dragon Balls!" Captain Ginyu as well as his men all looked shocked, thinking for a moment that Frieza had used a wish to bring them all back to life.

"What about Lord Frieza?" Jeice interjected, causing some of Frieza's men to join in and ask where their boss was. Goku was more than happy to explain.

"Frieza is currently in a battle between the Namekian Piccolo, and my son Gohan." An uproar exploded in the ranks of Frieza's army. None of them had _ever_ heard of Frieza fighting, and certainly had no idea that _anyone_ could match Frieza in power. Vastly more confused, however, were the likes of Ginyu and Vegeta, one of whom knew the deep depths of Frieza's power.

"You're lying; no one has ever been able to match Lord Frieza's power!" Ginyu shouted, causing Frieza's men to roar with agreement.

"I'm not lying!" Goku yelled, his aura expanding in an attempt to calm the crowd. His energy was so immense that all of the Namekians were in sheer awe; they had never felt such an insane amount of power before this. Those who could not sense energy were simply in awe at the vibrant aura that the Saiyan exuded. "I fought Frieza myself." Goku explained. Vegeta's jaw dropped when he heard Goku's words, not believing him for a moment.

"Ginyu is right. Not even you could hope to touch Frieza, Kakarot!" Vegeta retorted. Goku had heard enough.

"Believe what you want, but I need to know what's going on." Goku told the crowd, "I'll try to have King Kai show you all what's happening right now on Namek."

The Saiyan closed his eyes, yet kept a close watch on Ginyu's energy signal as he attempted to telepathically communicate with his old mentor.

'_King Kai, I need your help with something._' The North Kai didn't say a word; it appeared he was too deeply in thought to respond. After a few moments, Goku attempted to communicate with him once more '_King Kai? Please, I need to know what's going on with Gohan and Frieza!_' Upon hearing Frieza's name, King Kai snapped out of whatever it is he was thinking and babbled for a few seconds about how strong Frieza was.

'_Sure, of course Goku._' King Kai complied, trying to patch Goku's telepathic abilities to the fight on Namek.

'_One more thing, could you please show all of these people what's going on?_'

'_Only briefly,_' He replied '_If I connect with their minds too long they might suffer severe headaches._' Goku swore he could hear Krillin chuckle in the background. Goku opened his eyes to see that all of Frieza's soldiers, as well as Vegeta and the Namekians were in a trance like state; their eyes wide open with dumfounded looks upon their faces. It lasted only a few moments before they all regained their senses. None of them knew exactly what to say.

"You all saw it didn't you?" Goku shouted, many of the men began quietly chattering amongst themselves. Ginyu seemed to be the one who was most disturbed.

"This… this isn't right!" The purple alien screamed, clenching his fists in anger "Lord Frieza is infallible!"

"That's enough, Ginyu." Vegeta interrupted, causing the captain to give Vegeta a death glare "We all saw it. Frieza's met his match." The newly revived Saiyan sighed and slouched to the ground, resting his arm on his knee. He had seen something that disturbed him greatly, the child that killed Nappa now had golden hair, and according to an old legend he had heard while his planet was still around…

'No, that's preposterous.' Vegeta assured himself, not wanting to believe for a moment that a mere child could have achieved such a level of power.

"Vegeta's right Cap'n…" The red skinned alien admitted, hoping that his captain wouldn't get himself killed. "Maybe we should just get out of here." Ginyu sighed, calming down slightly. He turned to Jeice and was about to agree.

"No, no one here is leaving until Frieza is dealt with." Goku ordered, causing many of the people in Frieza's army to shout and scream in protest.

"What about our families, huh?" One soldier yelled out.

"We'll be out of a job!" Another pointed out, causing a second uproar in the crowd. Goku's head began to pound, he wasn't ready to deal with all of this yet, but he knew he had to keep order.

"That's _enough!_" Goku roared, loud enough and with enough force to create a crater below him. Some of Frieza's men had been knocked off their feet and were crawling backwards in fear. The entire area went silent, and the frustrated Saiyan surveyed all the faces surrounding him. "I don't care _what_ you do after Frieza is dead. You can leave to your families and you can try to find a new job. You can even stay here on Earth and start a new life!" Goku balled his hands into fists, intimidating the soldiers "but you will _not._ _leave. this. spot._" The Saiyan paused and looked at the frightened faces of all of the men, hoping that he wouldn't have to fight any of them. "Until I tell you that you can. Is that clear?" Only a handful of the soldiers nodded, with many of the others being too afraid to respond. Goku decided to try again. "Is that _clear?!_" He shouted, most of the men were now nodding backing away, hoping that they wouldn't be attacked by this strange and powerful being.

Goku sighed; never had he had to be the one to control a crowd. It was a tough task, and he knew that he wasn't cut out for it, but he figured that he had done a good enough job thus far. Tien approached Goku cautiously, wondering if Goku had somehow been changed by Piccolo.

"Hey, Goku." The three eyed man asked, genuinely afraid that his friend may have been affected negatively by the recent events. "Are you alright?"

Goku shook his head, closing his eyes as he looked to the ground. Yamcha approached him as well, followed by Bulma.

"We're here for you Goku, please don't let Piccolo get to you." Bulma said, resting her hand on Goku's back. She caught Yamcha's eyes for a moment, but his were filled with sadness as well.

"Yeah, don't worry about him. When he comes back with Gohan, we'll be able to get him back for all he's done to us." Yamcha reassured his friend, hoping that they truly would be able to return Gohan to his father.

Goku shook his head once more, lifting it and putting on a false smile for his friends.

"Don't worry guys, I can handle it." Tien and Yamcha nodded, while Bulma was skeptical. She kept it to herself, however.

"I need to find Chiaotzu; I'll be back as soon as I talk to him." Tien requested, Goku nodded in agreement and the human was instantly off. Yamcha pat his friend on the back once more before he looked towards Bulma. She was nearly crying, but Yamcha had yet to figure out why.

"Bulma, why are you…"

"It's complicated." Bulma explained, interrupting Yamcha. The human swallowed hard and looked away for a moment, but turned back to Bulma and walked closer to her. By this time, Goku had already walked away and closed his eyes, attempting to sense Gohan's battle with Frieza.

"I want to know, Bulma. I missed you so much while I was gone." He said in earnest, grabbing onto Bulma's hands as she almost began to cry.

* * *

As the people on Earth were adjusting to what had recently happened, Gohan was struggling in his fight against Frieza. The two had been locked in a grueling match of hit and run for what seemed to be an eternity; Frieza seemed to keep the upper hand however. Ever since he witnessed the Dragon Balls disappear, he had been even more ruthless than before, brutally pounding on Gohan whenever the opportunity presented itself. Up until now, Piccolo had yet to interrupt their battle, hoping to wait for the right time to strike, or at least an opportunity to save Gohan from a fatal injury. He noticed that Frieza began showing signs of weakness, hesitating after a punch for a brief moment before going on the assault again, and decided that now would be a perfect time to strike. Piccolo blasted off towards the muscular tyrant, who was too busy throwing punches at Gohan to notice the Namekian honing in on him.

As Frieza raised his left arm for momentum, Piccolo rammed a devastating kick into his side, causing Frieza to scream in pain as he flew to the side. Gohan ignored Piccolo, who he viewed as only a minor distraction from his simple minded rage. It appeared as if the boy had completely forgotten about his master, but in truth this new power had completely blinded him. Gohan blasted off towards Frieza, slamming his fist into his face while the tyrant was attempting to balance himself in the sky. The attack sent Frieza soaring into the ground below, but only for a moment, as Frieza and Gohan flew at each other and clashed in the sky, dodging and throwing as many punches as they could. Piccolo could barely keep up with their movements, and it seemed that Frieza had also completely forgotten that the Namekian was even there in the first place. As far as the two opponents were concerned, they were the only two people in the area, no one else mattered but who they were currently fighting.

Frieza landed a hit on Gohan that launched the boy into the air; Piccolo followed the movements as Frieza quickly followed up with a kick to Gohan's stomach. The boy fell downwards at an incredible rate, but was able to catch himself midair, flipping his body to face the ground. Gohan somehow was able to block Frieza's knee, flying backwards and firing an energy attack at the alien. Frieza easily swat the attack away, breathing heavily while he began to smile. Gohan's irises were still gone, but it was clear from the boy's expression that he was losing energy fast.

Gohan shot towards Frieza, throwing a punch that the tyrant ducked under. Using the miss to his advantage, Gohan thrust his knee into Frieza's face, forcing him to reel back in pain. Gohan then threw another quick punch downwards towards Frieza's head, only to be met with thin air. He had disappeared and repapered just as quickly, right behind the kid with both of his arms raised and hands clamped together. Before Piccolo could react, Frieza had already slammed his fists into Gohan's back, forcing the child to crash into the ground.

"If you know what's good for you," Frieza started to say, taking a breath "you'll stay down th-" before Frieza could finish, Gohan let out a menacing roar. All of the dust in the area flew away as the boy's golden aura exploded. Frieza let out a frustrated shout, quickly flying towards Gohan, who disappeared from sight and quickly grabbed onto Frieza's tail. The tyrant turned just in time for Gohan to swing Frieza into the sky, releasing the appendage and loosing many ki attacks at his tumbling opponent. Many of the whizzed by, but some made contact and exploded upon impact. Out of the ball of smoke came an enraged Frieza, surprising Gohan and punching him straight in the gut. For a brief moment, Gohan's hair turned back into its original color, but quickly shot back into its golden state as he flew back slowly, holding onto his stomach.

Frieza grabbed Gohan's golden hair, lifting up and tugging on it. Gohan screamed as the evil tyrant slammed his fist into Gohan's stomach again, forcing the boy to cough blood. Frieza did it once more, making Piccolo cringe at the sight of it.

"I must give you credit for your resilience, but in the end you're nothing but a filthy monkey." Frieza boasted, grabbing onto Gohan's chin, squeezing his face tightly. Piccolo heard what he could only describe as cracking bones, followed by Gohan's agonizing screams. "I'm going to enjoy this."

Frieza butted Gohan in the head and threw him towards the ground as hard as he could. The ground cratered as Gohan hit it, and his hair began to violently change in color as he seemed to be struggling to keep his power up. Piccolo growled in both fear and frustration as Frieza raised his finger towards the boy, a bright purple ball forming in front of his finger.

* * *

"Do something Piccolo!" Goku quietly shouted to himself, fearing that the demon would only sit and watch as his son was killed.

* * *

Frieza chuckled to himself as he fired his thin beam of energy, piercing Gohan's body and tearing through one of the child's kidneys. Gohan's painfully agonizing screams could be heard from miles away, but Piccolo had been frozen in both fear and thought.

"I _must _work on my aim after I'm through here." Frieza sighed, redirecting his finger and pointing it towards Gohan's head. "Goodbye, monkey!" He shouted, firing another death beam. This one, however, was met with a small ball of ki that intercepted it and threw its trajectory off. Before Frieza could react, Piccolo rammed his own body into the tyrant with as much power as he could muster. Both of them flew back a few meters before Frieza was able to stop both of them and grab Piccolo by the arm, throwing him into the ground.

Seething with anger, the tyrant screamed into the darkened sky, causing a minor earthquake to rumble and shake Namek.

Piccolo landed hard on the ground, lifting himself up onto his knees, looking around at his surroundings. The planet itself seemed like it was dying as Frieza began to gather energy for a devastating attack. Something caught Piccolo's eye however, something that stood out from the now desolate land that he had landed on. Quickly, he picked it up and flew over towards Gohan.

"I've had enough of this!" Frieza shouted, lifting his arm into the sky "this planet, these insolent fools, everything!" A massive black ball of ki erupted from Frieza's hands, growing to an immense size as Frieza spoke. "I've been humiliated far too many times, my men are all dead!" The dark energy ball seethed with power as Frieza pushed his power into it "I will _erase_ this planet!" Before the ball was complete, Frieza launched it into the planet, the ball of dark energy boring a hole through the planet as it went. Piccolo could hear Frieza's laughter as he reached Gohan, who was breathing very shallowly and rapidly, his hair having been completely turned back into its original color. The boy turned his head towards the Namekian and attempted to say a word, yet nothing but a gasp came out of his mouth.

"No words, Gohan." Piccolo ordered quietly, lifting the magical bean from the palm of his left hand and placing it into Gohan's mouth. "Chew."

An explosive earthquake erupted as Gohan began to digest the bean, almost knocking Piccolo off his feet as he felt the death ball boring its way to the planets core. Almost immediately after Gohan consumed the bean, the hole in his body repaired itself. He lifted himself from the ground and stood of his feet, looking up towards Piccolo at first, nodding to assure his master that he had full control of himself once more. He then turned to look at a hysterical Frieza.

"You don't have long now, do you?" Frieza chuckled, looking down towards Gohan and Piccolo "My guess? You only have a few minutes before this planet erupts!"

Gohan screamed into the sky as loudly as he could, his energy quickly exploding as his hair instantly changed into its golden hue. Frieza stopped his laughing immediately and focused on the now rejuvenated Gohan.

After the boy had finished powering up, he gazed upwards towards, Frieza who was in a state of panic and shock, whilst Gohan was calm and collected.

Gohan smirked, relishing the look on Frieza's face.

"I guess I'll have to kill you quickly then."

* * *

**With time running out, will Gohan and Piccolo be able to destroy Frieza and find a way off Namek before it erupts? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	29. Chapter 28: Sacrifice

**Chapter 28: Sacrifice**

The Saiyan Goku released a massive grin and began to cheer. Things were finally going well and it was because of the senzu bean that he had brought with him when he had gone to Namek. Goku telepathically watched as Gohan rose to his feet and exploded into his golden state, and Goku could not have been any more proud of his son than at that moment.

"What's going on Goku?" Asked Yamcha, noticing Goku's enthusiastic cheers. Currently he was holding onto Bulma's hand, having listened to her story of Piccolo and how he kidnapped her. Goku only briefly took his mind off the situation to explain to Yamcha.

"Gohan ate a senzu, Frieza doesn't stand a chance!" The Saiyan balled his hand into a fist, clenching it tightly as his smile overwhelmed his face. Most of Frieza's men had taken to small talk, but the elites of his army looked very concerned at Goku, whose cheers they interpreted as Frieza's downfall. Ginyu refrained from asking, as he still kept faith that his lord could overcome any for that opposed him. Still, there was that lingering voice…

* * *

Frieza's face quickly evolved from one of shock to one of absolute fury. Every single one of his opponents had managed to be rejuvenated somehow, and it was really starting to get on his nerves.

"How do you keep doing that?!" The tyrant screamed. Gohan wasted no time in rushing towards Frieza and punching him in the face with a force the likes of which Frieza never could've expected to feel. The impact dented Frieza's cheek in and sent his body soaring through the sky and before he could regain his balance, Gohan followed up with another brutal punch to his gut. The attack stopped Frieza midair, and he reeled back slightly in pain, holding his gut with both hands and looking at Gohan with contempt.

Gohan smirked and dodged out of the way as Frieza threw a fast and nearly unpredictable punch at the boy, who began to flip in midair and kicked Frieza's exposed chin, launching him hundreds of feet in the air before the alien caught himself. He wiped blood from his lip and braced himself as Gohan landed another punch on his defending arms. The Saiyan hybrid continued his assault, slamming his powerful fists into Frieza's arms as the tyrant began shouting in pain with each hit. Soon enough, he could take no more and threw his arms to the side, creating a shockwave that forced Gohan back a few feet, allowing Frieza to begin an attack.

Frieza quickly rushed towards Gohan, throwing punches and kicks that Gohan blocked and dodged. It was clear to Piccolo that Frieza's energy had massively decreased, and that Gohan was beginning to overpower this tyrannical alien. A cruel smile swept over Piccolo's face as he thought of what sort of damage that his new weapon could do to the world when he returned, but then his facial expression shifted once he realized that Namek was minutes away from eruption. He looked around the immediate area, noting that the landscape was changing rapidly as Frieza's death ball was heading straight for the planet core. Namek was ablaze with activity, eruptions had begun all around and the sky was filling with ash and other debris. To his dismay, Piccolo found that Frieza's ship had been destroyed by a nearby volcanic eruption. There was no obvious way to escape the planet, and with his ship miles away, and with no way of knowing if it had been destroyed yet or not, Piccolo decided that he would stay with Gohan until the end to make sure that Frieza was taken care of. He didn't like the idea of dying for Earth, especially since Goku was still alive, but if he was to die than he relished the chance to go down in a blaze of glory, fighting an opponent whose power could demolish planets. The more he thought, the more he wished to step in and help Gohan fight.

Frieza finally exploited an opening that he had created and launched his fist at Gohan's right shoulder, forcing the boy to flip around and regain control of his flight. Frieza followed up by throwing more punches all of which Gohan seemed to have no trouble dodging, and finally flipped himself forward midair, clashing his powerful tail with Gohan's arms that had moved up to block the attack. Frieza's tail pushed Gohan downwards slightly, but this left Frieza wide open for a surprise attack.

Piccolo blasted forward as quickly as he could and rammed his leg into Frieza's back, sending horrible pain through his spine. The tyrant screamed in agony and threw himself into the sky, looking down at the Namekian whose face was filled with an almost homicidal glee. Piccolo charged at Frieza again, but the alien was ready and threw his right arm towards the oncoming Namekian, blasting a bright white beam attack towards him. Piccolo disappeared and slammed his elbow into Frieza's back while Gohan deflected Frieza's ki attack and flew at Frieza from the front. The boy threw his right fist at Frieza's face, contacting it and sending him flying leftwards. Piccolo followed and wrecked Frieza's chest with his intertwined hands. Gohan had already been in place, crushing Frieza's back with a devastating knee thrust.

It wasn't enough, however, and Frieza immediately regained control of his flight after Gohan's attack, thrusting his arm out and smacking Gohan straight in the face. He flew off in the direction he was facing, keeping an eye on the Namekian who was closely following Frieza's movements. After Gohan had shaken off the strange attack, he flew high up into the air and found Frieza's ki signal immediately. Gohan then began to charge a powerful ki attack, taking up quite a lot of energy. While Frieza was flying away, he threw out both of his arms and from his palms came two disc-like ki attacks. Frieza quickly threw himself around and tossed both discs at Piccolo, chuckling as he watched the Namekian's expression turn to one of frustration.

The first disc came from Piccolo's left, he thrust his stomach back just in time as it whizzed by, giving him barely enough time to bend backwards and let the second disc fly straight over his head. Piccolo snapped back into a straight formation, throwing his right arm out and charging a ki attack when he noticed that the discs were heading towards him from behind. Before Piccolo could dodge, the first disc sawed straight through his outstretched arm, causing the Namekian to shout in pain as his stump exploded in a bloody mess. He blasted himself upwards to avoid the second disc, tightening his left hand around the bleeding stump to stop the blood from pouring out. Frieza was back for more, throwing the two discs back at the injured Namekian.

"How about you stay dead this time!" Frieza screamed as he threw his arms towards Piccolo, guiding the discs. Frieza laughed hysterically, his eyes filled with contempt.

A terrifyingly powerful blast of ki hit Frieza like a rocket, blasting him straight in his right shoulder. The tyrant lost control of the discs and they quickly vanished, relieving a still anguished Piccolo who sighed in both relief and pain. Frieza's agonized shouts filled the sky, his shoulder had been badly damaged and Frieza knew it. He attempted to move his right arm, but the searing pain forced him to stop his arms movements.

"You _bastard!_" Frieza shouted towards Gohan, who was already flying towards the badly damaged Frieza "I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Gathering as much energy as he could, Frieza threw out his left palm and blasted his ki towards Gohan, who dodged the beam and readied his fists for an attack.

"Too late now." Gohan smirked, throwing a powerful right hook into Frieza's face, throwing the tyrant towards the ground. The boy turned around to find his master focusing on something, and with a muffled grunt a new, slimy right arm shot out from Piccolo's stump. The Namekian panted for a moment, as re-growing limbs was still somewhat of a challenge despite his massive power increase, but his power rapidly returned to him. Piccolo looked down towards the battered Frieza, who raised himself from the dirt and looked up into the sky, cursing the names of the two warriors that had tried to defeat him.

"You're too late!" Frieza shouted into the sky, holding his right shoulder in pain "this planet will explode and you will die along with it!" After chuckling for a few moments, a cough interrupted him. Blood spat out of his mouth and onto the ground, and just then he realized what was going to happen. His face slowly lifted as he watched both Piccolo and Gohan begin to charge attacks. Gohan had his arms raised high in the sky while Piccolo's were outstretched, but both of them wasted no time in gathering energy. The next few moments seemed to go by in an increasingly slow manner, with the tyrant attempting to try and figure out an escape plan at first, but quickly disregarded that idea when it was apparent that he had no chance of dodging such an attack with his power so thoroughly drained. He fell to his knees, contemplating his life and his choices, thinking about his father one final time. Both of Gohan and Piccolo's attacks had been launched, their energies combining to create an immensely powerful attack that Frieza knew he couldn't survive. Lifting his hand up to touch his face, he was surprised to find that a tear had formed and was rolling down his face.

The massive ball of energy consumed Frieza's whole body, disintegrating him entirely and colliding with the already crumbling Namek. Both Gohan and Piccolo took a moment to make sure that Frieza had finally been dealt with before blasting off in search of a suitable way off world. They flew past Frieza's destroyed ship, hoping that there might be more around that other soldiers had came on. After searching around the area for a few moments, it was clear that there was nothing around that could take them off world.

"Gohan, we need to get back to our ship, it's the only chance we have!" Piccolo shouted over to his pupil as a fiery explosion ensued below them. The boy nodded and soon both of them took off in the direction that they thought they had parked their ship.

* * *

Goku cheered happily and danced around for a moment before calming down. He turned to face all of the people who had been transported to Earth, and it was clear to Frieza's men from Goku's goofy expression that whatever had happened wasn't particularly good for them. The Saiyan looked towards Ginyu, who gasped and shook his head, not wanting to believe what he thought had happened.

"Frieza is dead." Goku proclaimed, looking around to find that most of Frieza's men didn't seem to be too distraught over it. In fact he caught a few of them smiling. Ginyu shook his head in disbelief.

"That's a _lie_!" Ginyu shouted, throwing his arms out to the side "a dirty no-good _lie_!" Without warning, Goku rushed forward and latched his right hand onto Ginyu's forehead, relaying to him the moment that Frieza had been destroyed. After the transfer of data had been complete, Goku took a few steps back and watched as Ginyu placed his hands over his face as well as shaking his head. After a few seconds, Ginyu looked back up towards Goku, his face completely calm.

"You're right." Ginyu said quietly, "It's over. Frieza has been destroyed." Almost immediately, Vegeta began to laugh, gaining the attention of most of Frieza's men.

"Who killed him Kakarot, was it the Namekian or your kid?" He asked, his smirk almost reaching from ear to ear. Goku turned to face his fellow Saiyan, copying Vegeta's smug smile.

"They both did, although there's something I should tell you, Vegeta." Goku said, losing the smile as he spoke.

"What?" Vegeta barked, obviously confused. Goku turned around and shook his head in disappointment.

"Frieza told me that he was the one who destroyed the Saiyans." Goku explained. Vegeta's mouth was agape; however the disbelief was quickly gone as he had his suspicions before. Regaining his composure, Vegeta shook his head and rested his head against the trunk of the tree.

"It's just as well since Frieza was killed by a Saiyan." Vegeta claimed, closing his eyes for a moment.

Ginyu looked around to find that many of Frieza's men had been completely fine with the demise of their master, including Guldo, Jeice and Cui. Jeice shook his head and looked toward Ginyu, who looked straight back at his squad mate.

"What now Cap'n?" Jeice asked, wondering what they would do with their current employer dead. Ginyu shook his head, not exactly knowing what their next move would be.

"First things first" Ginyu said, looking around at the soldiers "We need two new members. Remember the rules of the Ginyu force Jeice?" The red skinned alien scratched his head in bewilderment.

"I dunno Cap'n, it's been a while since we've recruited anyone." Jeice explained, turning to his green squad member "Guldo here was the last one we recruited, after Terko died on Planet Groad."

"You're right, it has been a while." Ginyu replied, scratching his chin. He quickly looked at Cui, knowing who he was at how powerful that the fighter was as well. "Cui right?"

Immediately the blue skinned alien shot to attention and saluted the captain. "Yes sir!" A bead of sweat fell down his face, causing Vegeta to laugh.

"You're going to recruit Cui?" Vegeta smirked, raising himself up "that vermin couldn't even defeat me." Cui broke his stance and clenched his fists.

"You want to bet on it Vegeta?" Cui shouted, "I'll destroy you in a matter of minutes!" Vegeta only chuckled, enraging Cui even further.

"Calm down, Cui." Ginyu ordered, the blue alien complied, still keeping his eye on Vegeta. "Now there's still the matter of the poses… Vegeta, why don't you join us over here for some poses?" Ginyu half joked, a chuckle escaping his lips. Vegeta growled and turned away, noticing that Kakarot was intently focusing on something.

* * *

Piccolo and Gohan swerved around a volcanic eruption as they flew, twisting and turning as they attempted to dodge the massive explosions that were occurring all around the planet. Both of them knew that it was a long shot, but if they could just make it to their ship then perhaps they could escape with their lives.

Gohan sighed in exhaustion, his hair almost changing back into its original color. The boy's aura shrunk slightly and then shot back into its shining hue, cuing Piccolo in that something wasn't right.

"Gohan, are you alright?" Piccolo asked, keeping an eye on his pupil. Gohan looked over to his master and nodded.

"Don't worry about me." Gohan said, looking forward once more, scanning the area for a ship. It was clear now that Gohan's body wasn't used to this power yet, and it was affecting him negatively. His energy was rapidly declining, and soon the boy would fall into unconsciousness.

"Conserve your energy Gohan; you can't keep up your energy forever." Piccolo ordered, but Gohan chose to stay in his transformed state.

"I can't, if I slow down even a bit…" Gohan began to explain. His hair started to violently change and he stopped midair, clenching his eyes shut and trying his hardest to maintain this new powerful transformation. Piccolo stopped as well, watching in frustration as Gohan began to crash towards the ground. Going after his pupil, Piccolo noticed a few space craft's on the ground.

Moving quickly, the Namekian grabbed Gohan and made his way to the two remaining ships, presumably the ones that the Ginyu force had used to come to planet Namek. As Piccolo made his way to the ships, Gohan's aura exploded once more, his eyes shot open and he looked up to find that Piccolo was racing towards something. After seeing the ships, he shot out of Piccolo's arms, startling the Namekian slightly, and blasted off towards the two ships.

A massive eruption exploded into the sky, incinerating one of the two remaining ships, causing both Gohan and Piccolo to gasp in despair, but another eruption took Piccolo by surprise, shooting up quickly and catching the Namekian's lower half in its fiery blast. Piccolo screamed in agony as his body crashed into the ground, his legs having been burned horribly. Gohan rapidly raced towards his master, picking him up by the collar of his shirt and shooting towards the last ship at breakneck speed. Piccolo clenched his fists and screamed into the air, looking straight at Gohan.

"T-take the ship!" Piccolo shouted at the boy, who was completely focused on getting them to their only way off world. After a few seconds, Piccolo spoke up once more; "Leave me behind Gohan!" He screamed, but the boy ignored his master, a tear falling down his face as he touched down to the ground next to the ship. Still holding his master by the collar of his shirt, Gohan wiped the tear away with his free hand and tossed Piccolo into the remaining ship. Despite the uncomfortable landing, Piccolo landed directly into the chair, attempting to get out of the pod as Gohan pushed him back in. "Get me out of here _now!_" Piccolo shouted at his pupil, but Gohan continued to ignore his master, pressing the button that closed the hatch to the ship.

"FINDING EMERGENCY COURSE TO NEAREST HABITABLE PLANET." A computerized voice announced to Piccolo, who looked out the window of his ship as it lifted into the air. He watched as Gohan looked up into the sky as his master's ship reached into the atmosphere, desperately hoping that there was some way Gohan could get off the planet. As Gohan faded from his view, Piccolo sighed and slammed his head back on the back of the headrest, closing his eyes as the pain returned to his body.

"EXITING PLANET NAMEK." The computer stated. As the ship soared into space, Piccolo looked back once more at the burning planet, and for the first time in his life, Piccolo felt deep, torturous sadness.

* * *

After the ship had gone out of view, the boy released control of his transformation and laid down on the soft Namekian grass. The planet was being destroyed around him, but Gohan didn't care. He saved someone he cared about, and now it was his time to die. The boy smiled as an explosion ruptured the ground. He pondered if he could somehow meet his mother in the afterlife and apologize for what he had done. He didn't truly know what was in store for him after death, but as long as Piccolo was safe, Gohan knew that he could count on his master to revive him. After all they had been through, all the hardships they faced, and even though he knew that Piccolo was deeply evil, there was still a part of him that cared for Gohan.

Another eruption blasted into the air, nearly hitting Gohan. He knew the planet didn't have much time, but he was finally ready. He wasn't afraid, and he had his master to thank for making him strong. Just before a massive earthquake shook Namek, Gohan sighed in a sort of relief.

"Take care of yourself Mr. Piccolo…"

* * *

The Namekian watched in horror as the planed exploded into a fiery blast, the ship shook as a shockwave blew throughout space, shaking entire planets as it went by. Piccolo looked away and clenched his eyes tightly shut, shaking his head in disbelief. It was all over, Frieza was dead, and now nothing stood between him and Earth. But he didn't seem to care. After a long sigh, Piccolo opened his eyes once more to see the debris of the planet floating through space. He looked away from the window and around the ship, and found a button labeled 'hypersleep.' He quickly pushed it, and the entire ship went black as Piccolo began to fall into a deep, un wake-able sleep. Just before he lost consciousness, the computer spoke once more.

"TRAJECTORY SET. E.T.A. 10 DAYS TO PLANET YARDRAT."

* * *

Goku fell to his knees; tears began to fall down his face as he felt for any trace of Gohan at all. There was nothing, and he knew that Gohan was dead. The Saiyan fell flat on his palms, grabbing a handful of grass as his tears plopped onto the Earth. Bulma, Yamcha, Gon and the recently returned Tien and Chiaotzu gathered around their distraught friend. They all looked at each other with solemn faces, each knowing what likely had happened. Yamcha knelt down and placed a hand on Goku's back, attempting to comfort him in his time of need.

"He did it for everyone Goku, Earth is safe." Yamcha explained, hoping that Goku would stop crying.

"He _didn't _have to _die_!" Goku shouted, startling Yamcha who took a step back. "He could have left Piccolo to die, but he _saved_ him!" Everyone looked around in a mix of astonishment and fear, especially those who had fought Piccolo themselves. Bulma wiped a stray tear from her face and knelt down to the right side of Goku, reaching her hand out and placing it on his right cheek. She tilted his head to look at her, and noticing that she had begun crying as well, embraced her. He cried into her shoulder, hoping that everything had been just a dream.

"He learned a lot from you Goku…" Bulma explained, tightly clenching Goku's back "he learned compassion from you." Goku sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes, releasing Bulma from his grip.

"He doesn't deserve to go to hell." Goku proclaimed, saying this as much to his friends as he was to King Kai. The Kai pondered this for a moment, and finally he thought he had a solution.

'_Goku, please stop crying.' _The northern Kai told Goku '_I'll contact Yemma and tell him the whole story.' _Upon hearing this, Goku finally ceased his tears, knowing that King Kai, while goofy, was a Kai of his word.

'_Thank you so much King Kai…' _Goku telepathically said appreciatively '_I owe you so much for this.' _The rest of Goku's friends all smiled as the Saiyan raised himself off the ground, swallowing hard as he looked over to all of Frieza's men. He had no idea what he should do with them, but so far they hadn't done anything wrong, and so Goku decided that he would let the brunt of them go.

"Every one of you has a choice." Goku shouted, gaining all of the soldier's attentions. "You can leave Earth if you want. Go back to your families, try to find a new job in space, or you can stay here and try to live normal lives." Many of the troops looked around at each other, not entirely sure what they should do.

"How will we leave?" Asked one soldier in the crowd.

"Bulma's father is a scientist; he can make you all space ships." Goku replied, causing Bulma to shake her head.

"That would take a while Goku." She whispered, Goku smiled at her and turned back to the crowd.

"It will take a while for the ships to be ready, but I will allow you to leave." Many of the soldiers cheered upon hearing this, but many were still confused.

"Where will we stay?" Another soldier asked, Goku looked to Bulma, who rolled her eyes.

"Can these soldiers stay at capsule Corp?" Goku asked. The blue haired woman pondered this for a moment, and finally came up with a solution.

"The soldiers _and _the Namekians can stay, but only until we can use the Namekian Dragon Balls again." She explained, relieving Goku greatly. The Saiyan repeated what Bulma had told him, telling everyone how large Bulma's estate was. This greatly pleased many of the soldiers, but the Namekian people were all very distraught at the loss of their home planet.

Guru had been discussing the future with his children, and explained to them that it had to be without their Grand Elder. The only elder who Guru deemed worthy of taking up the mantle of keeper of the Dragon Balls was Moori, whom the rest of the Namekians agreed was the best choice. After Guru had released his keepership, he died with a smile on his face, knowing that the Namekian people were in good hands.

Moori spoke up for the rest of the Namekian people upon hearing Goku's words.

"We accept, although we do not enjoy the prospect of living with the people who killed us." Moori said. Although completely understandable there was little that Goku or Bulma could do besides give Frieza's men one half of the space and Namekians the other half. Goku nodded towards the new keeper of the Namekian Dragon Balls and looked over to the Ginyu Force.

"What are you four going to do?" Goku asked curiously.

"What else can we do?" Ginyu snarled, "Without a ship I guess we just have to live with the rest of these people." Goku then turned to face Vegeta.

"And what about you Vegeta?" The prince scoffed and turned away from Goku.

"I'm not going to live with those fools if that's what you're asking." He explained calmly. "No, I think I'll find a secluded place to train." Goku had no problem with this, but wanted to make it clear to Vegeta that he would not tolerate violence.

"I'm going to keep my eye on you Vegeta." The orange clad Saiyan announced "and if you get out of line even _once_. I will hunt you down." Sweating slightly, Vegeta growled and blasted off into the distance, not knowing exactly what his plans for the future were.

"Want me to go after him?" Yamcha asked, almost getting ready to fly away. Goku shook his head dismissively, prompting Yamcha to ease back into a normal stance.

Goku looked around to find that there were three Saibamen that he could tell were arguing. He walked over and all three of them snapped to attention. He noticed that one was the one that Piccolo had killed after his betrayed to the group.

Goku knelt down to their level, looking each of them in the eye. "You're Skriatch right?" He said, pointing to the one with no distinguishable markings on his head. Skriatch nodded.

"Yes, I am Skriatch." He claimed, obviously scared. Goku pat him on the head in reassurance.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to let _anything_ happen to you." Goku claimed, lifting himself back up. "I'm sure that all of you will get along at Bulma's house, right?" He asked all three of them. Trokar, Lod and Skriatch all nodded, with Lod heading off to see Bulma and Skriatch and Trokar going their separate ways. Goku shook his head in confusion and looked back over to the mass amounts of people that he would have to take care of over the next few months.

He didn't know what was going to happen, but he knew that he wouldn't allow anything to happen to Earth. If he had to kill Ginyu, he would, but until Ginyu proved to be a problem, Goku decided that it was better to keep him alive.

Before he decided to lead everyone back to Capsule Corp. Goku looked back up into the sky once more and sighed. What Goku didn't know, however, was that the worst was still yet to come.

* * *

"Come in… is Bur… Just esca… explosion!" A sinister figure sat back in his chair as his servant relayed the message to his master. He took a sip of his wine and placed it on the table next to his throne.

"Frieza... on planet…" Upon hearing this, the figure crushed his glass, allowing wine to spill all over the floor.

"Set a course for Namek." He said coldly, ordering his men to destroy the ship that the transmission was coming from.

* * *

**What's next for Goku now that he has to look after an entire group of people? What will become of Piccolo and Gohan? And what does this sinister being have planned? Find out next time on _Piccolo's choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	30. Special Chapter: The Ginyu Dilemma!

**Special Chapter: The Ginyu Dilemma!**

It had been just a few short days after Goku had led both the Namekian people and Frieza's former soldiers to Capsule Corp. So far, it looked as if the two groups were at least ignoring each other's presence. Most of the Namekians spent their time in the gardens playing games that Bulma and her father had thought the Namekians might have enjoyed playing as well as learning of Earth itself. The soldiers on the other hand seemed to want to explore Earth, and without any incentive on destroying it, most of them fit along with society just fine (after a change of clothes that is.) Everything seemed to be going smoothly for everyone at Capsule Corp., Bulma's family included, but as it turned out, there were a group of people who weren't quite content with their current situation.

In a small dark room, four figures sat behind an elongated desk of sorts, staring at one of the soldiers named Horus, who was an alien from one of the planets Frieza had concurred many years ago. Bright stage lights were pointed in his direction, and he had been shielding his eyes for the brief minute that he had been inside of the room. The lights gleamed off of his bright orange skin, with his many bumps and rivets on his body a major indicator of where he had come from. Horus quivered in both anticipation and fear as he awaited a voice to tell him what to do, for he had no idea what he was actually suppose to be doing at all. He had just heard from a friend of his that there were auditions, but he had no idea what they were looking for. Horus looked around the desk, seeing only silhouettes of four different people, all seemingly just staring at him. He heard a small click and could swore that he heard a scouter being used, but shrugged it off. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Horus decided that he would finally break the silence.

"H-hello, my name I-"

"Next." A voice boomed out, causing Horus to shoot back.

"Wh-what?" He asked, his face seeming to contort in confusion and anger.

"He said next, ya twit." Another voice chastised Horus "that means ya go out there and bring in the next contestant."

"B-but I-"

"We don't care." Yet another voice said, obviously annoyed at this new contestant. "Get out, right now."

Horus gulped and nodded, throwing the door open and allowing light to pool into the darkened room from the outside hallway, bringing all four of the Ginyu Force into the light.

"You need to calm down Cui" Ginyu ordered "You're the new guy; your vote doesn't count for much." The blue alien nodded and chuckled nervously just as the door fully closed.

"O-of course, captain, whatever you say!" Cui agreed, revealing a huge nervous grin as well. Just then, the door began to creep open and a face appeared through the crack between the door and the frame. The four could tell that this new face was a female, as her species was very similar to the ones found on Earth.

"Hello!" She greeted the four, poking the rest of her body through the door and walking towards the stage light. Ginyu's men all looked around, exchanging concerned looks, but ultimately decided to give her a chance. "My name is Fiore, I heard there was an audition?" She asked, attempting to make out the faces of the four people sitting in front of her. None of them responded, but she heard the sound of a click, and then the sound of an electronic beeping of sorts. She was about to say something, but stopped herself in fear that the Ginyu's would yell at her. After a few moments, the electronic sounds ceased, and she could see the biggest of the silhouettes moving his hand towards his chin.

"Well, you seem to be the strongest soldier we've seen all day." Ginyu explained, rubbing his chin in thought. "8000 is nothing to scoff at." She smiled slightly and looked around at the rest of the men, whom she could not discern the faces of.

"I think we ought to give 'er a shot cap'n" Jeice voiced his opinion, which Guldo seconded.

"Yeah, let's see if she's got what it takes to be a part of the Ginyu force!" The small green alien shouted quietly, leaping up off his chair onto the table. Soon Jeice and Cui followed Guldo's lead, rising slowly out of their chairs and walking over to Fiore. The girl was almost terrified as the three of them took their places on either side of her, with Guldo in the front, the taller Cui to the right and the shorter Jeice to the left. Fiore was incredibly confused, but had no time to ask questions as she saw all three of the people surrounding her thrust their arms out to all sides, quickly bending their legs all in synch with one another.

"Come on now; let's see if you can pose with the best of us!" Ginyu chuckled; secretly delighted that he had found a viable candidate. She stood in shock for a moment, but quickly adjusted herself to be at the center of the three dancing people. She thought for a moment, raising her hands up into the sky and moving them to the sides, jumping up and down frantically.

Ginyu sighed and shook his head "Stop," he said disappointedly, his men all ceased their movements, but Fiore continued her crazed jumping. "I said _stop_!" Ginyu shouted, forcing Fiore to come to a complete halt, looking around in a dizzy daze, panting in exhaustion. "That was just…" Ginyu shook his head side to side, placing his hand over his nose and pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and his index finger "just absolutely painful."

"I tried my best…" She said, panting even harder now that she had been criticized so harshly.

"We don't hire people who try their best" Ginyu explained as his men all came back to sit down beside him "we hire people who _are_ the best, and it's clear to me that none of these damn people are fit to be a part of my team!" Ginyu shouted, Fiore looked towards the ground, not knowing what to say. "Just get out of here, and tell all those other grunts that there won't be any more auditions today." The purple alien ordered. Fiore nodded and walked out of the room without so much as a peep, leaving the four men to their privacy.

"You didn't have to be so harsh…" Guldo proclaimed, "She was kind of cute too."

"Shut up, Guldo." Ginyu barked "we don't hire someone because- _she was kind of cute_" the captain mocked, attempting to sound as much like Guldo as possible. All four men sighed simultaneously, Ginyu and Jeice slamming their heads against the desk. Ginyu attempted to speak, but his voice was slightly muffled by the desk "I just want one person, one single person that is powerful and can dance well."

"Why don't we go looking then?" Cui asked, causing Ginyu to shake his head from left to right while still firmly planted on the desk.

"If Goku caught us, we'd be dead." The captain explained. Jeice raised his head up, an idea sprouting in his mind.

"But cap'n, what if we asked him?" The red skinned alien wondered. Ginyu's head raised as well, his eyes wide open and a grin on his face.

"It's worth a shot!" He shouted, shooting up out of his chair which flew across the floor.

"Yeah!" Jeice yelled out, hopping up out of the chair, clenching his right and into a fist and raising it in front of his face.

The two of them ran out of the room, leaving Guldo and Cui behind.

The two looked at each other and sighed, beginning to run after their superiors.

* * *

Bulma was currently working on the space ships that she had promised to the many soldiers who had been stranded on Earth when she heard loud footsteps from a corridor. She quickly turned to find Captain Ginyu and Jeice were right behind her. She screamed in surprise, the two had seemingly come out of nowhere, but were both bent over, panting.

"What are you two doing here?!" Bulma shouted, causing them both to rise to attention.

"We need to talk to Goku." Ginyu gasped out, Jeice nodded in agreement. Bulma eyed them both cautiously, placing her palm on her forehead.

"Are you in some kind of hurry?" She asked, taking her hand off her forehead and placing them on her hips.

"Well, no…" Ginyu said, scratching the back of his head.

"Then why are you panting?" Bulma continued questioning.

"We ran all the way across the facility ma'am." Jeice explained, just as the two other members of the team walked into the room.

"Why did you find it necessary to run if you weren't in a hurry?" She shot at them, to which both Ginyu and Jeice both looked at each other and shook their heads.

"We don't…" Ginyu began, but cut himself off "Look, that isn't important, we need to get Goku's permission to leave here and explore Earth to find a new squad mate for my Ginyu Force!" Ginyu shouted, surprised to find that Bulma had raised her finger at him.

"Don't you shout at me, or I'll have someone on you so fast you won't even have time for one of those ridiculous dances." Ginyu raised his hand and waved them in front of his body.

"No need for threats, Ms. Briefs, I've just been frustrated all day and-"

"Look, I'm really busy building ships for you guys, why don't you ask some other people around here?" Bulma pointed towards a spherical shaped object, in which the Ginyu force could see through the windows that bright lights and explosions were occurring on the inside. "Go ask him if he wants to play your stupid games, you can even ask one of the Saibamen if you want." She turned around and walked away from them, returning to her work. Ginyu shook his head and growled in anger.

"Damn it, it's not like we're asking to revive Frieza." Ginyu yelled quietly to himself, Jeice patted his captain on the back.

"No use gettin' worked up over it; let's just see who's in that pod." Ginyu nodded, and all four of them walked over to the nearby pod, stopping just in front of the door. Inside they could hear the muffled grunts and shouts of someone who was in intense training, and almost immediately Ginyu could tell who it was.

"No." Ginyu said, turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Come on Captain, we need whoever we can get!" Guldo said, causing Ginyu to stop in his tracks.

"He's human, you expect me to let a human onto the Ginyu force?" Ginyu growled, turning around to face his men "they were the laughing stock of the Galaxy! Frieza trusted a baby Saiyan to wipe them out! A freaking baby!" All of their attention was caught by a rather loud explosion from the pod, and Ginyu's scouter instantly came on to report of a high power level. The other men turned to Ginyu, whose jaw had dropped slightly. "Ok, so maybe they aren't as pathetic as I had thought…" The horned alien sighed and walked back up to the door, knocking on it lightly at first. No response came, and they could still hear the loud explosions and grunts on the inside of the ship. Ginyu began to knock harder, nearly denting the ship in the process. Cui placed his head against the hull of the ship to listen in, and found that he couldn't hear anything.

"I think he stopped…" Cui explained, continuing to listen in. He heard footsteps, and all of a sudden an extremely loud banging noise threw Cui backwards, his body stiffening up in shock as he stumbled around and fell down the stairs of the pod. Ginyu, Jeice and Guldo chuckled, and the captian knocked on the door once more.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." The human told the Ginyu Force, releasing the hatch to the door. As the door slid open, Yamcha took a short look at the three pairs of boots, and then at the three people standing before him. The Ginyu's saw that Yamcha was sweating profusely, and had obviously been in rigorous training for the past few days.

"Oh, it's you." Yamcha sighed unenthusiastically. "I'm doing something important right now, so if this isn't worth my time I don't want to hear it."

"Well you see, we're short a member, and we were wondering if you would like to audition to-"

"Let me stop you right there, horny" Yamcha said, chuckling to himself at his joke "No way am I ever going to join you and your dancing buddies over there" Yamcha gestured his head over to Jeice and Guldo, who looked at each other in confusion. Ginyu's facial expression changed to one of rage and frustration, but before he could say anything the door to the pod slammed shut.

"C-cap'n?" Jeice said, trying to look to the side and attempt to see his captain's facial expression.

"This is _bullshit_!" Ginyu shouted. The room went deathly silent, and everyone in the room started to stare at him. The purple alien looked around and chuckled a bit, putting one hand in the air while placing the other on the back of his head. "Don't worry, everyone, I just… lost a few credi- er, dollars." Ginyu corrected himself, using the knowledge he had gained of Earths economy. Almost everyone in the facility shrugged it off and went back to their work. Ginyu sighed in relief and shook his head, attempting to calm himself down.

"I know what you mean, cap'n, but we've gotta play by their rules." Jeice explained, Ginyu lifted his head up and shrugged.

"For now." The captain grinned, but none of his men did.

"Well what about those Saibamen?" Guldo questioned, hoping that they would finally have a group member that was closer to his height.

"Forget it." Ginyu said, walking over towards Bulma once more "I'll only stoop so low, Saibamen are just stupid."

"What you say?" asked a small, scratchy voice in the background. Out of the shadows came a Saibamen, the one that Ginyu recognized as 'Lod.'

"Nothin'. now go along, we have important stuff to do." Jeice patronized, angering the Saibamen further.

"Lod not stupid." The Saibamen proclaimed, causing Ginyu to chuckle.

"You can't even speak correctly!" Ginyu laughed, causing Guldo and Cui to begin laughing as well.

"At least me don't need to switch bodies to stay alive." All of the Ginyu force went silent. None of Ginyu's loyal soldiers had ever even mentioned Ginyu's cowardice in fear that they may be killed, but now that this Saibamen had called him out, Ginyu was absolutely speechless. Lod knew he had done enough and walked away, leaving Ginyu absolutely livid.

"How dare he!" Ginyu shouted to himself.

"Forget about 'im cap'n, let's just go." Jeice said, trying to cal his captain down. Ginyu growled and started walking once more.

"The sooner we get off of this damned planet the better." The captain and his men returned to Bulma, who sighed and turned around, planting her palm on her forehead once more.

"I'd just love to help you guys, but Goku isn't in a good mood right now." Bulma explained, shaking her head from side to side. "I don't think he'll tolerate you guys just wandering around."

"So let us talk to 'im!" Jeice requested. Bulma's head shot up and looked at the red skinned alien in confusion.

"You're the last person he wants to talk to." The blue haired woman claimed, sighing and turning back around. "Fine, I'll call him." All four of the Ginyu force grinned and did a fist mini fist pump, waiting to hear from Bulma what Goku would have to say.

Bulma dialed a few numbers into her cellular phone and placed it up against her ear. After a few moments, it appeared that someone had answered the phone.

{_Hello, Son residence, who am I speaking to?} _said the faint voice of a man that none of the Ginyu's could recognize.

"Hello Ox King, this is Bulma." She greeted, "is Goku around?" There was silence for a moment, but after a while the voice returned.

{_Yeah, he's coming now. He's angry Bulma, be careful._} A strange noise could be heard, but then a familiar voice came was heard through Bulma's phone.

{_Hey Bulma, make it quick, I need to get back to training._} Goku was heard saying.

"Right, well Ginyu and his… friends wanted to know if they could explore Earth and-"

{_Absolutely not, they can't be trusted._} Goku adamantly answered, worrying the Ginyu's a bit.

"I know, but they won't try anything. They're too afraid of you, and they just want to find a new member for their team." Bulma explained "They won't stop bothering me about it either, first they needed my scouter, then an audition room…"

{_Fine, Bulma. Let them go, I won't hurt them._} Goku promised, sighing. {_but if they get out of hand-_}

"They won't." Bulma said, looking at the Ginyu's expectantly. "I'll let you go, Goku. Come by and see-" the woman stopped talking when she had begun to hear the dial tone, indicating that Goku had already hung up. She shook her head and turned to face the four grinning soldiers.

"Go ahead, but I expect you back before twelve tonight." Bulma ordered, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a watch. "Here, take this." She walked up and placed the watch into Ginyu's hands, immediately walking backwards as soon as Ginyu had it in his hands. "See that little hand? It's on the one right now, which gives you eleven hours out there." The horned alien looked at the watch, obviously confused.

"What are these strange markings?" He asked, twisting the watch around to try and figure out its function. Bulma sighed and swiped the watch back from Ginyu, placing it back into her pocket.

"Just… come back when the sun starts to set alright?" She asked. The Ginyu's nodded and were about to leave when Bulma stopped them. "Put some longer pants on will you? No one wants to see… that." The blue haired woman shook her head and turned away. Both Ginyu and Jeice looked down and saw nothing wrong with their attire, as it was standard issue for some of Frieza's army.

"I think she means like mine." Cui explained, causing both of the confused men to look at what the blue alien was wearing.

"Ah, perhaps that would be for the best." Ginyu nodded "my legs _are_ pretty cold right now."

And with that, the Ginyu's retreated to the locker rooms that Frieza's former men had used, changing into the appropriate attire for the long day ahead of them.

* * *

Ginyu and his men stepped out of the Capsule Corp. building with a single, simple goal in mind; find someone who could strike a great pose. Clad in their new attire, the Ginyu Force was finally ready to start looking for this mystery person, wherever he or she may be hiding. Ginyu took a long, deep breath, and then his eyes shot wide open.

"Shit." Ginyu said, clenching his fists and throwing his head backwards, staring at the sky. "We have no idea where the hell we are." The rest of the Ginyu Force looked in all different directions awkwardly, hoping to come up with some kind of plan. Jeice grinned and turned to his captain.

"The scouta!" The red skinned alien exclaimed "Just use it to find the nearest power level!" Cui hit himself on the forehead, dumfounded that they had not thought about that earlier.

"Of course! I don't know why we even had to think about it." Ginyu replied, clicking the button on the scouter he had attached to his ear. It quickly came up with several powers that were far in the distance, one he could tell was so massive that it had to be Goku, and the other one was around Cui's power level. "Well, I've found Vegeta." Ginyu explained, "What do you think men?" He chuckled, pressing the button on the scouter again before his men could respond.

"He's pretty strong, cap'n, maybe we should…"

"NO!" Shouted Ginyu, Guldo and Cui in unison, interrupting Jeice mid sentence. Jeice merely grinned wide and nervously chuckled. The scouter didn't have to search long before it picked up a power even larger than Vegeta's, in fact there were two large powers near each other, although one was many times larger than the other.

"Dunno who this guy is, but he might be worth checking out." Ginyu said, locking onto his power level signature and blasting off in its direction. Jeice, Cui and Guldo all followed closely behind.

"Hey Jeice, what do you think happened to Recoome and Burter?" Guldo asked almost as soon as they took off. Ginyu and Cui both listened intently, wondering what could have happened themselves.

"How would I know Guldo?" Jeice retorted, not wanting to think about what could have happened to Burter "They aren't on Earth, so either they left Namek or they died and didn't get wished back."

"I sent them after one of the Dragon Balls, I don't know if they ever reported to Frieza or not" Ginyu reminded them.

"Oh, cap'n!" Jeice shouted up to Ginyu, who turned his head to face Jeice. "That reminds me, can you use this scouta to contact anyone?" Ginyu turned around and clicked the button on the scouter, opening an interface that usually communicated with a central intelligence unit of sorts. After finding that the communications had been completely blocked, the captain sighed and shook his head.

"Nothing. Can't even contact the other scouters here on Earth." Ginyu told his men, who surprisingly didn't mind at all "besides, if King Cold ever finds us, we all know what he would do for letting Frieza die." Ginyu felt his neck lightly and gulped, as did Jeice. Guldo and Cui had never met King Cold, but had merely heard stories of him and how he was even more ruthless than Frieza.

"You two met King Cold?" Cui asked the two, who stayed eerily silent. "How? Not even Zarbon or Dodoria were ever able to meet him." Jeice sighed, shaking his head.

"Look, we had some dealings in the past. In fact, we used to be acquaintances until he forced me to be Frieza's caretaker." Guldo chuckled thinking of a child Frieza, and Cui began too after he saw Guldo laughing to himself. Ginyu turned around and looked at the two in confusion. "What are you two laughing about?"

"Oh nothing…" Guldo replied, covering his mouth in an attempt to muffle his laughter.

Cui couldn't hold it in and began laughing hysterically, "_Destroy that planet daddy, I don't like it!_" Cui cried, grabbing onto his sides. Guldo burst out laughing as well, attempting to imitate Frieza's voice.

"_I want immortality daddy!_" Guldo mocked, forcing Jeice the chuckle as well. Ginyu didn't find the comments to be nearly as hilarious as the others thought.

"This is why Frieza never paid us our bonuses!" Ginyu shouted, "You think he didn't hear when you laughed at his voice? He was really sensitive about that too!" this comment caused Jeice to start bursting out laughing as well, and made Ginyu chuckle when he remembered how ridiculous his former boss sounded.

"Remember when he called us?" Guldo managed to yell out through his laughter "_I need those balls!_" Guldo imitated Frieza's voice again, which sent all four of them into a laughing fit.

"_Those balls are mine!_" Jeice said, also imitating Frieza's voice.

"_I'll pay you for every one of my balls you find._" Ginyu joined in, using his best Frieza voice. All four of them were laughing so hard that they had to stop midair and let it all out. Wiping tears from his eyes, Jeice pat Ginyu on the back.

"He was pretty ridiculous, wasn't he cap'n?" The red alien asked his boss, who nodded after wiping tears from his eyes.

"If there was one thing Frieza couldn't do, it was seeing a good double entendre." Ginyu laughed out.

"That's right cap'n, remember on Frieza planet five when that lightnin' rod broke?" Ginyu's eyes burst open and both he and Jeice started another laughing fit, with Cui and Guldo seemingly out of the loop.

"_Handle…_" Ginyu attempted to mock, but was cut off by his own hysterical laughter "_Handle my rod carefully!_" Ginyu finished and laughed loudly, causing Cui and Guldo to explode in laughter as well. They all were laughing so hard that they began to float to the ground below, landing on the soft grass and falling to their knees, crying harder than ever and holding their aching sides.

After a few minutes of sheer hilarity, the men had finally wound down and starting rising to their feet. Jeice, Cui and Ginyu all wiped their tears away from their eyes and stared as Guldo continued to laugh. The three of them stared at Guldo for a moment before Ginyu cleared his throat rather loudly, snapping Guldo to attention.

"Yes captain, sorry!" Guldo shouted, raising to his feet but still chuckling lightly to himself.

"Let's get going, we still have a long way to go." Ginyu said, turning around and blasting off in the direction that the scouter pointed to.

* * *

As they neared their destination, the four could clearly hear a waterfall in the distance. They sped up upon noticing a man under the waterfall and quickly landed on the ground in front of the pool of water where the waterfall fell into. The three eyed man's eyes quickly opened and he shot to attention, flying over and landing in front of the four men. Chiaotzu flew right behind him and poked his head out from behind Tien's back, wondering what these men wanted.

"You're Ginyu right?" Tien asked, looking straight at the purple alien.

Ginyu looked to his men who scrambled around, getting into a specific, pre-determined position. Guldo was on the far left, followed by Cui, and then Ginyu, and finally Jeice. Tien looked over his shoulder to Chiaotzu in utter confusion only to find that Chiaotzu was equally as confused. A grunt was heard and they both looked back to find that the smallest member had thrown his hands up into the air, thrusting one arm forward and standing on one leg he grunted again, throwing his arms up and to the side, positioning his hands to face away from his body as he knelt.

"I'm Guldo!" He screamed, startling Tien and Chiaotzu slightly. Just then, both of them heard a slight screeching noise, and saw the red skinned twirling his hair around, tossing it to the ground as he knelt. He quickly threw his hair back and tossed his arms up and threw his hands to either side just as Guldo had.

"I'm Jeice!" He shouted, but at this point, Tien and Chiaotzu had already had enough.

"You could just-" Tien was cut off by a loud shouting noise coming from the blue alien, who took a step back with his right foot and thrust his arms in front of him, facing his palms outwards. He then threw his arms to the right and over his head so that they were facing the final member of the group.

"Cui!" He yelled out to the two captive audience members. Tien planted his hand firmly on his forehead, feeling embarrassed simply by watching this display of utter foolishness. The last member who was already facing the wrong way, spread his two legs and looked through the gap between them, his hands to either side of his face with the palms facing outwards as well.

"Captain Gin-"

"Ok, ok, I get it!" Tien shouted "I know who you are, now please, stop, this is embarrassing me." Ginyu stayed in his position for a moment and then sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.

"You didn't even let us do our grand finale!" Ginyu said in disappointment, lifting himself up and turning around. The others followed suit and released themselves from their positions.

"I'm training right now, what do you want?" Tien asked, crossing his arms and awaiting a response.

"Well you see, my team and I are looking for someone to-"

"Not interested." Tien replied with a straight face. Ginyu's face looked shocked.

"Y-you didn't even let me-"

"I don't care; I want nothing to do with you." Tien firmly stated "_Any_ of you." The four of them stood entirely still, Jeice sighed and Ginyu snapped himself out of the shocked daze he seemed to be in.

"So be it, I guess we'll just-"

"I don't care. I really don't, just leave me so I can start training again." Tien interrupted once more, which enraged Ginyu greatly.

"Why is it that you insist on interrupting me?!" Ginyu shouted. Tien sighed and turned around, not saying another word to the purple alien. Ginyu growled and turned his back, crossing his arms.

"That guy was a total dick." Jeice proclaimed only loud enough for his peers to hear. Cui and Guldo nodded, and all three turned to their captain. Ginyu clicked his scouter again and picked up more large energy signals, much smaller than the last ones they had encountered, but at this point Ginyu would take anyone who could strike a well enough pose. He blasted off, quickly being tailed by his three men.

* * *

The four neared their destination slowly, as they heard two people arguing in the large tower that they had nearly arrived at. Ginyu looked at his men in confusion, and tilted his head towards the tower. All four of them hid right under where the two arguing people were so that they could hear what they were saying.

"Oh for Pete's sake, you've been back a day and you've already eaten all my fish!" Korin shouted, pacing around as Yajirobe scratched the back of his head.

"Hey! I didn't get nothin' to eat while I was dead." The fat human responded, "Besides, you know you missed me!" Yajirobe laughed, but Korin didn't find it all that hilarious.

"All you _ever_ do is eat! I've seen cows with a better appetite than you!" Korin yelled, banging his stick on the ground. The Ginyu's could hear Yajirobe chewing on something and couldn't discern what exactly he was trying to say, but apparently Korin was able to understand.

"Yeah well sometimes you have to think about something other than food!" The cat sighed "maybe you wouldn't have been so useless against the Saiyans if you trained a little!" After swallowing his food, Yajirobe took a deep breath.

"Hey! I resent that! I cut off that one guy's tail!"

"And then you died!" Korin said roughly, "Not even a cool death, you just got blown up!"

Ginyu looked at Jeice and shook his head from side to side, the four of them took off, still hearing the two argue as they left the scene.

The next area that the Ginyu Force was lead to was a small city. The four landed in front of a building that they could only say looked like a bank, and all of them wondered what someone with such a significant power would be doing in a city like this. All four of them entered the building and instantly saw the large lines and massive amount of people.

"Great, any one of these people could be the one with the power that the scouter picked up." Ginyu sighed, looking around the room and clicking the button every time he saw a new person. All four of them walked around the bank and were stared at by some of the civilians who thought that they and their armor looked strange, and Jeice even got some looks from the ladies who thought that he looked handsome. Most of the people thought they were just cosplayers and went about their business.

"Whoa, those are great costumes!" One of the people said as the four of them walked by.

"Costumes?" Cui asked as he looked back to see that the man was still staring at them. Ginyu was frantically checking all of the powers, hoping desperately that it wouldn't take too long to find the person that they needed to find.

"Three, two, five…" Ginyu announced, many of the people shrugged it off as nonsense. Ginyu stopped at a baby carriage and tilted his head, clicking the scouter. "Zero point zero one." Ginyu read off, sighing and clicking the button again, turning it off.

"We're not getting anywhere like this." Cui said, continuing to look around at the faces of the people surrounding him.

"Maybe we should go cap'n." Jeice suggested. The captain shook his head from side to side.

"As much as I hate to say it, we should." He agreed. The four began to walk out of the bank when they heard screaming coming from the front of the line of people.

"Please don't hurt me!" Screamed a young woman. The Ginyu Force forced their way to the front of the line and witnessed a cyborg man holding a sword at the teller, who had her hands up in defense. Ginyu quickly pressed the button on the scouter and found that, indeed, this man was the one with the power that the scouter had picked up.

"Don't move or I'll kill you!" He shouted, thrusting the sword closer to her throat "Now put all the money you can into this sack!" the cyborg threw a burlap sack at the woman who began to fill it with money. Ginyu took a step forward, but the cyborg heard it and swung around to face whoever dared challenge him. To him, it appeared that a costumed man in a purple suit had just stepped forward, and he laughed slightly upon seeing him.

"You think you can stop the great Mercenary Tao?" He laughed out, lifting his arm up at Ginyu and removing his hand, revealing a canon. With no warning, Ginyu grabbed Tao's arm and lifted it up. The Mercenary attempted to slash at Ginyu's chest, but the blade broke upon impact. "Wh-what the hell are you?!" He shouted as the civilians looked on, one person began to cheer, and that started the rest of the people cheering as well. The four Ginyu members looked around and watched as the crowd threw up their hands chanting 'purple' over and over again in unison. Ginyu looked weary as he scanned the faces of the crowd, but ultimately decided not to pay them heed and began to walk out of the bank with Tao still in hand, struggling to break free. The crowd parted to allow Ginyu to walk past, most of them had ceased their cheering, and many of them had even followed the group outside to see what he would do with the bank robber.

Ginyu tossed Tao onto the street, allowing him to flee to wherever he desired.

"He was just lucky I promised not to cause any trouble." Ginyu stated, turning to look at all of the people whose faces were lit up with excitement. "What are you all looking at?" Ginyu shouted, causing some of the spectators to look at each other.

"Y-you stopped a robbery, you're a hero!" A man in the crowd shouted, after the comment had been made the rest of the people roared out in agreement, praising the strange man for his deeds. Ginyu roared out in frustration.

"Shut up! All of you!" He yelled, ceasing the cheering of the crowd. He looked around, a clear snarl on his face as he did.

The people remained silent, not knowing what exactly to expect. Ginyu turned to his men and rolled his eyes, pointing his thumb towards the sky. All of them nodded, and in an instant they were airborne, with all of the people on the ground staring at them in awe.

"That was… interesting." Cui said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It was idiotic; we should have just left them." Ginyu retorted, shaking his head from side to side.

"Aww cmon cap'n, I saw you blushin'!" Jeice teased, causing Ginyu to growl softly.

"Stow it Jeice, let's just find the next person…" Ginyu shouted. "Next location is… wait, in the middle of the ocean?" The captain's facial expression changed to one of confusion, but he shrugged it off. The four then made their way to the Turtle Hermits house, hopefully to finally find someone who could, indeed, strike a great pose.

* * *

The Ginyu Force flew over the ocean for a short time before noticing a small island and a house in the middle of it. It was strange, and seemed very out of place, but the men didn't mind and touched down on the sandy beach. They were about to walk up to the front door when they heard a noise from the inside, it was muffled, but they could tell it was a female speaking.

"Move those hips!" She shouted, causing Ginyu and Jeice to exchange confused glances.

"What the hell is goin' on in there?" Jeice asked, the men inching their way towards the door. There was some kind of cheesy music playing in the background, but still the men could not discern what was happening. Grunting could now be heard from inside the house, and an old sounding man had started to speak up.

"Oh yeah ladies, work it!" He yelled out, laughing in the strangest fashion. Ginyu's eyes shot wide open, hoping that what he thought was happening wasn't really happening.

"I don't like the sound of that." Cui proclaimed, taking a step away from the house. The alien backed up too far and tripped backwards over what looked like a rock, after Cui shook his head a few times, he looked over to find that a turtle had come out from under the rock and was staring straight at him.

"Oh, hello." Turtle greeted. Cui immediately backed up, crawling backwards on the ground and then lifting himself up. "I haven't seen you here before." Turtle remarked, causing the rest of the Ginyu's to look back and see that there was a talking Turtle behind them.

"Y-you can talk?!" Cui asked, brushing the sand off of his uniform.

"Of course I can talk," Turtle said, "A lot of animals can talk on Earth." The four men all looked confused, but accepted it quickly.

"Ah, well, it just uh…" Cui walked around the turtle and joined his teammates "It took me by surprise is all."

"It's no problem." Turtle replied, looking over at the house after he heard a loud crashing noise.

"What was that?" Guldo asked, gazing at the door along with everyone else who had heard the noise.

"Master Roshi is probably just doing his exercises again." Turtle explained, closing his eyes and shaking his head back and forth. "You don't wanna go in there, trust me."

"We've already come all the way over here so we aren't leaving without at least talking to him." Ginyu said, turning to face the door and slowly walking towards it. Turtle rolled his eyes and went back into his shell as the rest of the Ginyu Force slowly crept up behind the captain, trying to anticipate what exactly they would see once they opened the door.

"Work it ladies! Bend those hips!" Roshi shouted just as Ginyu was reaching for the handle. The captain stopped and rethought opening the door, but ultimately he decided to go along with it. He carefully turned the handle to the right and inched the door opening, peeking inside. What he saw blew him away.

Master Roshi was moving up and down to the rhythm of the beat, mimicking the ladies on the screen. He was laughing pervishly as he moved, eyeing the young women who were exercising on screen and attempting to now stand on one leg. The captain was absolutely mesmerized, he couldn't stop staring. The door opened even wider and Jeice, Cui and Guldo all looked inside, wondering why their captain was so perplexed at the situation. Jeice and Guldo both donned faced of sheer amazement, while Cui was a bit more horrified at the situation. Ginyu rushed quickly into the room without Roshi knowing and took a place behind the old man, moving in synch with the ladies on the screen just as Master Roshi had been doing. Following quickly were Jeice and Guldo, who took to either side of Ginyu and copied the moves of the ladies as well. Cui stared in shock, wondering what exactly was going on. As he entered the room, he shut the door, which alerted Roshi. The old master turned quickly to find that four strange men had entered his house, three of which were still doing the exercises that the women on the video were doing. After a moment, the Ginyu's all ceased their dancing and coughed awkwardly. Roshi looked around the room in both amusement and confusion, adjusting his sunglasses so they were no longer crooked.

"What are you doing in my house?" He asked rather calmly, staring at the purple alien standing in front of him.

"Oh, uh…" Ginyu looked around to his teammates who got into the same position they had been in when they introduced themselves to Tien. Just as Guldo was doing his movements, Ginyu closed his eyes and shook his head. "You know what? Never mind." Ginyu sighed, causing Guldo to freeze in place and fall to the ground. "I'm captain Ginyu; this is Jeice, Guldo and Cui." The captain pointed out his teammates as he explained who each were. Guldo rose back to his feet and dusted himself off. "You see, we need a new member for my group, preferably one who can strike a good pose." Upon hearing this, Roshi stroked his beard in contemplation.

"I don't even know you, why are you asking me?" Roshi questioned. The four aliens looked around at each other and shrugged.

"We held auditions, no one was good enough." Cui explained to the old turtle hermit, who turned around and appeared to be thinking.

"We would be honored if you could join us in our posing." Ginyu requested, awaiting a response from Roshi.

After a few moments of silence, Jeice and Ginyu looked at each other and then back at Roshi. The old man shook his head quickly and turned around to face the Ginyu Squad.

"Oh, sorry, I was busy watching the girls. Hehe!" Master Roshi chuckled. Ginyu cleared his throat and spoke once more.

"I'm going to be honest with you; I think you're the best choice I can make." Ginyu explained to Master Roshi "I would consider it a personal favor if you could join us as we strike our poses."

"I dunno boys, my days of fighting are long over, and I can't move as well as I used to." Roshi told Ginyu, who looked rather disappointed at the fact. "The only thing that keeps me motivated is these exercise tapes!" the old man began his perverted laugh again and turned to watch the women once more. Although extremely disappointed, the captain decided that he couldn't give up his search.

"Let's keep moving everyone." Ginyu ordered, making his way to the door. Before he opened it, he turned and watched as the old man began to exercise again. The captain sighed and exited the house, turning on his scouter once more.

"We aren't getting' anywhere cap'n." Jeice claimed, kicking the sand below his feet in frustration.

"I know that!" Ginyu shouted, intently searching through the available powers to find one that he thought could be strong enough to use. Just then the door swung open, everyone but Ginyu turned and saw Master Roshi standing at the doorway.

"I felt kind of bad for you guys, so I decided to tell you something." Roshi walked out of his house and down the steps, stopping in front of the four men. "You guys are a wacky bunch, but I know a bunch even crazier than you." Ginyu, rather intrigued, stopped fidgeting with his scouter and turned to face Roshi. "My sister has some fighters you might want to meet, her name is Baba and she keeps some of the weirdest people you can find in her palace."

"With all due respect, we aren't looking for weird." Captain Ginyu explained to Master Roshi, turning his back to him and spreading his legs out to either side. The captain then ducked his head under his legs and snapped his head to face Roshi "We're looking for people who can pose!" Everyone stared at Ginyu for a moment before the captain felt awkward and returned to a more normal position.

"Well, who knows, maybe they can." Roshi said, turning around to head back into his home "Wait here while I go and get something." Ginyu nodded as Roshi walked into his home. After a moment, the people outside could hear a commotion, and then a banging noise from the upstairs of the house.

"Get up you lazy pig!" they could hear Roshi shout.

"What the…?" Cui wondered, tilting his head and cautiously observing the window to the upstairs room.

"He means Oolong." Turtle suddenly spoke, startling Guldo who had been right in front of him. After Guldo had jumped in surprise, he turned to Turtle with a face full of anger.

"Hey! Warn someone before you sneak up on them like that!" Guldo shouted, causing Turtle to go back into his shell. After he cooled off, Guldo turned to find that Master Roshi was standing at the doorway once more with a strungling… pig… man… in his hand.

"Get your hands off of me old man!" Oolong yelled, kicking and flailing in a vain attempt to free himself "I was having a nice dream until you screamed at me!"

"Stop your whining!" Roshi retorted, smacking Oolong in the nose with his cane. Oolong only became more irritated and flailed even harder than before. "Show these nice boys where Baba's palace is." Requested the old man, throwing Oolong face first into the sand.

"Why should I?!" Oolong rose up out of the sand and shook it off of his body "I don't even know these guys!"

"They came all the way here for nothing, the least I can do is point them in the right direction." Roshi answered the pig, who growled in frustration. "And besides, I could use more alone time. Hehehe." Everyone looked at Roshi in complete horror as he seemed to glide back into his home, obscured by darkness. The door slammed shut by itself, and Oolong was left with the four men. He looked around at them and they all returned his gaze, wondering what the hell he even was.

"What are you guy's looking at?" Oolong asked, crossing his arms. Cui and Jeice rubbed the back of their necks and looked in different directions. Ginyu simply coughed and Guldo continued to stare. "Look, let's just go, I'd rather not stay on the island when the old man is having his alone time." With that, Oolong changed into the form of a bat and flew up into the air, leading the Ginyu's to Baba's palace.

* * *

Once they had finally arrived, Oolong changed back into his original form and began to pant.

"Oh man, I haven't been transformed so long like that in a long time." The pig plopped himself onto the desert like area, taking in deep breaths as the Ginyu Force touched down in front of him.

"What a strange pig…" Ginyu told himself, looking over to the dome shaped building. He could see a purple floating thing in front of the open archway that began almost immediately to come towards them.

"Welcome! You're our first visitors in a long time!" The ghost like thing screeched out. The four soldiers looked around at each other and then back at the ghost, wondering what the hell it was.

"Is this Baba's house?" Cui asked.

The ghost flew in front of Cui and answered: "Fortuneteller Baba, and it's a _palace._" Cui chuckled nervously and nodded.

"Right, of course." The blue alien took a step back, unsure if this ghost was dangerous or not. The pink floating ghost began to fly back towards the archway.

"Are you five together?" It asked.

"Not me!" Oolong grunted out, waving his hands in the air "Just these four guys!"

"Marvelous! Come with me, Fortuneteller Baba will be pleased that we have visitors!" The four began to walk towards the entrance, leaving Oolong behind in the sand.

"Go on ahead, I'll leave when I'm ready." No one listened to the pig, however, and they continued to walk into the building.

The ghost chuckled eerily to itself, leading the four out of the building and onto a bridge that led to a larger building. As they looked around, they could tell that the place hadn't seen much use, as the plants were all dying and the water looked a sickly green.

"Hurry now, we haven't had a visitor in so long!" The ghost said, leading them along the path.

"This is kind of creepy." Guldo mentioned, looking around and observing the run down palace. As they all reached the next building, the ghost rose up in the air and pointed its stubby arms at the old structure.

"Behold, Baba's palace!" The ghost floated downwards once more and led them into a darkened room, where the Ginyu's could barely see a thing. Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the shape of a ball that descended till it was just above the ground. A being began to materialize on top of the ball, and soon she was in full display of all who were in the room. She was a decrepit old which, and all four of the men stared intently as she looked at their faces.

"It's been a while since anyone's come here." Baba said, clearing her throat. "But you aren't here to have your fortune told, are you?" The Ginyu's snapped out of their staring and all shook their heads. "Don't answer that, I know why you're here." She sighed and turned herself around, floating out of the room and into the sunlight. Ginyu and his group followed her out into the sun, walking with her over yet another bridge that led to a giant platform in the middle of the lake.

"How do you know what we're here for?" Ginyu asked curiously. Baba scoffed, continuing to float forward.

"My name isn't 'Fortuneteller Baba' for nothing." Baba led them past the platform and across another bridge that led to yet _another_ building. "Just follow me, I'll lead you to my people." The walk was relatively quiet for the rest of the way. Baba led them into the building and up the stairs, stopping them in the middle of the flight.

"Why are we stopping?" Jeice asked as Baba turned towards the wall. She pushed at the wall and a secret compartment opened up, revealing a kitchen like area where some commotion was going on.

"In here you'll find my dining hall, please, take a seat." Baba requested, ushering the four of them into the room. There they saw three 'people' arguing, one looked like a vampire, another like a mummy and the last looked like some kind of demon.

"This is ridiculous" said the demon looking man, who crossed his arms and tossed his head to the side "why should I be subjected to such nonsense?"

"It's fun!" the vampire proclaimed, waving his arms around wildly.

"No it isn't." the mummy retorted, crossing his arms and giving a loud 'hmmph.'

"You're just mad that you're losing." A yet to be seen person chimed in, causing the Ginyu's to check around the room for the missing person.

"Who just said that?" Cui asked. Upon hearing his voice the three men turned to face the Ginyu and his men.

"That's See-Through." Baba explained "He's an invisible man. That's Spike," Baba then pointed to the devil looking man with wings "That's Bandages the Mummy," She then pointed to the mummy looking figure "And that's Fangs." She finally pointed to the last of her minions.

"We were just playing a board game." Spike said, lifting himself from his chair and 'accidentally' bumping the board game off the table. "Oops, looks like no one wins now." Fangs growled and almost jumped on Spike before Bandages grabbed onto him.

"Calm down, it's just a game." The mummy said, forcing the vampire back into his seat.

"Baba told us about you, she said you would be coming here." Spike moved closer to the group and placed his hands on his hips.

"You want another member of your group right?" See-Through said, startling the men who didn't know where he was.

"Uh..." Ginyu didn't get to speak before he was harshly interrupted.

"Oh, me! Pick me!" Fangs shouted, jumping out of his chair and doing a strange dance.

"Shut up Fangs! They want me!" Bandages yelled, punching Fangs out of the way.

"I'm the one they want!" See-Through claimed, tripping the mummy. Fangs then jumped on top of See-Through and dug his fangs into the invisible man's head, causing him to scream out in pain. "He's doing it again!"

Spike closed his eyes and sighed, turning back to face Ginyu. "Please get me out of this hell hole."

"I'm not sure I want to be here anymore cap'n." Jeice urged, stepping away from the three fighting stooges. Ginyu stepped away from Spike and nodded.

"Agreed, let's get out of here!" Ginyu and the rest of his men ran out of the room, followed closely by Baba's four fighters and Baba herself.

"No, wait!" See-Through shouted after them.

"It sucks here!" Bandages called out, nearly tumbling down the stairs after the four Ginyu Force members.

As soon as they had exited the building, all four of them shot up into the sky and flew away. The only thing that Baba and her fighters could do was watch as they left.

"Damn it, they were my last chance…" Spike fell to his knees and shook his head in shame.

"Oh well, looks like you're in for another hundred years of servitude for me." Baba cackled as the other fighters began to fight amongst themselves.

As Ginyu and his men flew away from the chaos, the captain contemplated giving up his search and going back to Capsule Corp.

"I think we're done, men." Ginyu said in a depressed tone, shocking the rest of his crew.

"Don't say that cap'n, we need another memba!" Jeice shot back, but the captain was unaffected by his pleas.

"No, Jeice. I think I've had my fair share of insanity for today." The rest of the men decided with the captain, and they all flew back to the Capsule Corporation for a much needed rest.

* * *

Hours after the sun had set, captain Ginyu retired to his men's 'barracks' where they were all watching a television. Ginyu sat and joined them in watching the show, but as soon as a commercial break had come on Ginyu demanded to be handed the remote.

"Come on Guldo, do you really need to find out if Stacy cheated of Fernando?" Ginyu asked, surprised to find that his tone was more serious than he intended.

"What if she did captain?" Guldo replied, holding the remote firmly in his hands "What if the show comes back on after you change the channel and I never find out?"

"Guldo's right cap'n, I've invested too much time in this show to miss a pivotal moment like this!" Jeice agreed, causing Ginyu to take a moment of pause. The captain looked at his two men and began to laugh.

"You can't be serious!" Ginyu chuckled whilst Guldo's face turned red and Jeice looked around awkwardly. Taking advantage of the situation, the captain grabbed the remote out of Guldo's hands and flipped to a different station. On the screen was a ring of some sorts, with a man in the middle of it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Mr. Satan!" Someone had announced, referring to the man in the ring. Mr. Satan then did a series of poses, ranging from one of a swan, to one of a bull, and finally his signature peace sign. All four of Ginyu's were wide eyed, absolutely astounded at the man's ability strike poses.

"That's the guy." Ginyu said confidently "We're meeting him tomorrow."

* * *

By the time that Ginyu had awoken the next morning, the rest of his team was already up and about. The purple alien climbed down from his top bunk and set his feet on the ground, looking around the room to see if his men were in the room. Around the area there were massive amounts of bunk beds, many which still had sleeping people in them, but he didn't recognize any of them as Jeice, Cui or Guldo. The captain grabbed his boots and sat down on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed he shared with Jeice and slid his boots on. After that the captain lifted himself from the bed and did his morning stretches, making sure to get his hamstrings. When the stretches were complete, Ginyu entered the men's locker room and opened up his locker, throwing off his boots and clothes and heading for the shower room. Ginyu was already giddy with anticipation for the day to come, and while he was preparing to turn on the water he began to whistle a song that he remembered from his childhood.

Soon after he had started bathing himself, whistling just wasn't enough and he began to sing a catchy song that he heard on the radio that was playing last night.

"Oh Ginyu you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind hey Ginyu! Hey Ginyu!" The captain reached out for a bar of soap and continued his song "Oh Ginyu what a pity you don't understand, you take me by the heart when you take me by the hand." Ginyu started to twirl around while he was in the shower "Oh Ginyu you're so pretty can't you understand…" The captain was having so much fun he neglected to hear the footsteps coming from the locker room "It's guys like you Ginyu! Oh what you do Ginyu, do Ginyu, don't break my heart Ginyu!"

"Cap'n? Is that you?" Ginyu immediately stopped singing and dancing upon hearing Jeice's voice and coughed a few times nervously.

"Uh, yeah" Ginyu coughed again, noticing that he was still talking in his singing voice "Yeah I'm in here, I'll be out soon." The alien slapped himself on the forehead for acting so stupid, but despite possibly humiliating himself in front if his men, Ginyu was still fairly cheerful. He quickly finished and dressed himself in his armor, along with the long leggings that Bulma suggested he and Jeice wear, and walked out into the barracks to find all three of his men sitting in front of the television again.

"What did I tell you about television in the morning?" Ginyu scolded, swiping the remote from Jeice and clicking the off switch.

"But our soap was on!" Guldo crossed his arms and pouted. Cui bonked Guldo on the back of the head and laughed.

"I think it might be Guldo's time of the month!" Cui joked, throwing his head back and heartily laughing at the expense of the small green alien, who did not find Cui's joke nearly as funny as he did. Ginyu let out a small chuckle, but coughed and quickly changed his expression to one of the utmost seriousness.

"We've got something important to do today men, we have to find this 'Mr. Satan' and see if he's Ginyu Force material." The captain said, looking around to make sure that all of his men were paying attention "Now we've got to convince Bulma to let us out again…" Ginyu turned around and began to stroke his chin in thought, his brow furrowing in a thought filled expression. He turned around after only a moment of thought, a grin spread across his face. "Jeice," The red alien shot to up off of the couch and into position "Go grab some chocolate from the cafeteria and meet me in the labs."

"Aye aye cap'n!" Jeice nodded and ran off in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Guldo, go pick some flowers, maybe that'll help you with your little 'problem.'" Still pouting, the small alien grumbled and walked off, causing Cui to begin laughing hysterically. "And Cui?" at the mention of his name, Cui stopped laughing and shot into attention "do… uh… what do you do Cui?" the captain asked. Cui looked up and to the left in thought, not knowing exactly what he could do to help the situation.

"I could… ah…" The blue alien then looked to the ground, scratching the back of his neck.

"Ah, I know!" Ginyu exclaimed "Remember last night, when Horatio came to Jenny's house?"

"Oh yeah!" Cui shouted "And he put on that music that she liked!"

"Exactly, grab one of those things that play music and bring it to the lab!" Cui complied immediately, running off to find the radio that was in the barracks. Ginyu put on the biggest and best smile he could muster and walked out into the corridor, making his way to the lab. On the way he was given strange stares by the residence, mostly scientists, who had thought that Ginyu looked strange with such a smile on his face. In fact, even Ginyu himself knew that he looked rather evil with a smile on his face, but the fact of the matter was that a smile was essential if he wanted to convince Bulma to let them leave once more. As he rounded the corner to the hallway that housed the entrance to the labs, he saw that Vegeta was also waiting at the entrance to the labs.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here Vegeta?" Ginyu questioned, walking up to the door and crossing his arms expectantly.

"Why should I tell you, idiot?" Vegeta insulted, crossing his arms as well "My business here is my own; I know what you and your lackey's have been doing." The captain grinned.

"You always _did_ have a stick up your ass Vegeta." Retorted Ginyu, chuckling to himself quietly. Vegeta growled and moved into an offensive stance. "Why don't you go cry to your daddy huh? Oh wait…" The prince of all Saiyans yelled out in frustration, struggling not to strike at his vastly more powerful opponent. "Oh, do you think you can beat me Vegeta? You're sadly mistaken." the captain also took up a fighting stance, waiting for Vegeta to make the first move. However, the Saiyan backed down and scoffed at his enemy.

"You aren't worth my time." With that, Vegeta walked off, leaving captain Ginyu more confident than ever. After waiting at the door for about half a minute, the captain could see Jeice running down the hallway with something in his hand. Upon closer inspection, Ginyu could tell it was a bar of chocolate.

"Here you go cap'n!" Jeice handed Ginyu the bar of chocolate, turning to look down the hallway that he had just come from. "I saw Vegeta, he looked pissed." Turning back he could see his captain had a smug look on his face. Both of them looked down the other end of the hallway to find that Cui had procured a radio. He had it tucked away under his arm, the cord following behind him as he ran towards his captain. The three waited for a few minutes before Guldo showed up, he had a bouquet of flowers and was slowly making his way back to his fellow squad members.

"Here's your damn flowers." Guldo said, obviously agitated. Ginyu grabbed the flowers from his hand and nodded.

"Great work men!" The captain complimented. "Jeice, you and Guldo stay here. Cui, come with me to set up the radio." Cui and Jeice both nodded, "and Guldo, try to stop acting like a pissed off teenager." With that, Ginyu and Cui entered the labs. Bulma was currently on her lunch break and was sitting at one of the tables to the right side of the room. Cui moved quickly and plugged the radio in, setting it on top of the table that Bulma was currently eating on.

"What the…?" Bulma shouted, rather startled that both Cui and Ginyu were standing right next to her.

"Uh, hello Bulma…" Ginyu greeted awkwardly, still holding both the chocolate and flowers in his hands "We wanted to thank you for letting us go yesterday. Here's some flowers!" The captain handed her the assortment of roses, tulips and daffodils, holding off on the chocolate.

"Thank you?" The blue haired woman took the flowers and stared at them curiously.

"We wanted to ask you something though…" Ginyu looked over to Cui and nodded. Cui turned the radio on and slipped in the smooth jazz CD that he had found next the radio in the barracks. Bulma was understandably and considerable confused at this point, not even knowing what to say. "Will you let us go one more time?" Ginyu then got on one knee and lifted the chocolate in both palms towards Bulma. It was fortunate that Yamcha was in his training room; otherwise the situation may have gotten very out of hand.

Bulma was speechless for a moment, but quickly regained her composure and shook her head. "No, I can't do that, Goku is mad enough at me as it is!" Ginyu blinked his eyes twice, not believing what he had just heard. He looked to Cui who seemed to be equally as confused. Cui turned off the radio and Ginyu rose to his feet.

"I don't understand, women always say yes when these three conditions are met!" The captain said, causing Bulma to smile and laugh a bit.

"That's only on the television; you can't get whatever you want with chocolate, flowers and music." Bulma explained, "Although they do help…" In a temporary fit of anger, Ginyu threw the candy bar to the ground and stepped on it.

"I was sure this would work!" He shouted, clenching his fists. He turned to Cui again; his eyes filled with fire "No more television! For anyone!" Cui nodded and grabbed the radio, rushing out of the room. Bulma rose out of her chair and pat the captain on the back, comforting him slightly.

"Look, if it means that much to then… I guess one more day won't hurt." Ginyu's eyes lit up when he heard Bulma say those words. "I'll tell Goku that you're leaving, but you only get a few hours this time."

"That's all the time we need." Ginyu assured Bulma, rushing out of the room to his three men.

"What did she say?" Jeice asked curiously, rushing up beside his smiling captain. Ginyu gave his thumbs up, surprising his men and causing them to cheer.

"Let's go find this guy!" Ginyu shouted, beginning to run but stopping himself prematurely. His men stopped behind him in confusion. Turning around, he asked "do any of you know where that arena was?" All three of his subordinates looked at each other, clearly stumped as to the location of where Mr. Satan could be.

"Maybe we should ask for Bulma's help again?" Jeice cautiously asked, Ginyu reluctantly agreed and slowly made his way back into the lab. Ginyu inched his way towards Bulma, running through his mind how he would ask her for help when she turned and saw him staring at her.

"What is it this time?" She sighed, putting her hand on her hips and shaking her head.

"Do you know where the World's Martial Arts Tournament is held?" Asked the captain, who was rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Bulma shot him a suspicious look.

"What on Earth do you need with the World's Martial Arts Tournament?" A crash garnered her attention for a moment, but she quickly returned it to Ginyu.

"It's not the tournament I'm interested in, it's the champion."

"You mean Mr. Satan?" Bulma asked "He's famous; you'll have a better chance of traveling through time than meeting him." Ginyu sighed and shook his head.

"I just need to see him once!" Bulma turned her back on Ginyu and thought deeply for a moment, and finally came up with an idea.

"Look, since you gave me flowers… maybe I fly him over here for dinner." She said, smiling sweetly. Ginyu laughed and nearly hugged her.

"That would be great!" With that, the captain exited the room to tell his men the good news.

* * *

All four current members of the Ginyu Force sat in the dining area of the Capsule Corp. building, all of them anticipating the arrival of Mr. Satan himself. Ginyu had made sure that all of them were well dressed for the occasion, even Guldo who they had to struggle to find clothes for. The four heard a noise from outside and looked out the window to see a helicopter touchdown on a nearby landing pad. Giddy with excitement, the four of them all readied themselves to meet who they all knew would make the perfect Ginyu Force member.

Bulma had explained that they were fans and that they liked to dress up, so Mr. Satan didn't hadn't minded when he stepped into the room and saw the four strange men. Almost instantly captain Ginyu rose to his feet and replicated the poses that he had seen Mr. Satan do the night before. The man laughed and flashed his peace sign at the purple alien.

"I can see you know my moves!" Hercule Satan proudly claimed, walking forward and taking a seat on the large chair opposite of the four Ginyu Force member's chairs. Hercule rested his feet upon the dining table and crossed his arms, looking over to Bulma as she touched his shoulder.

"Excuse me; I have a lot of work to do." Bulma explained, taking her leave of the five men. Ginyu sat back down in his chair and scooted it towards the table, trying to retain the best manners that he could.

The captain quickly introduced himself "My name is captain Ginyu, but you can just call me Ginyu."

"Always nice to meet a fan!" Mr. Satan yelled out in his loud voice "say, when do you think the food is coming?" He looked around the room, trying to figure out where the kitchen was.

"It's coming. Bulma said she had her best chef working on it." Ginyu assured the man, who relaxed in his chair and looked at the other three men.

"So who are those guys?" Hercule asked, scratching behind his ear.

"Oh, of course, this is…"

"Jeice, pleasure to meet ya mate!" Interrupted the red alien, infuriating Ginyu. The captain remained calm, however.

"I'm Cui, this is Guldo." Cui pointed to the green alien. Guldo immediately became upset at not being able to introduce himself.

"I'm perfectly capable of saying my own name Cui!" Guldo shouted.

"Shut it Guldo, we are in the presence of a guest." Ginyu ordered, Guldo grumbled and stared at his plate.

"Those are some weird names, where are you guys from?" Mr. Satan asked them. Bulma had specifically told Ginyu and his men not to mention that they were aliens, so Ginyu had to think of something quickly.

"We're from… far away." The captain quickly replied, not wanting to risk angering Bulma.

"Oh come on now, I've been all over the world!" Mr. Satan said, smiling. "You gotta at least tell me what city you're from." Ginyu was never good at being put on the spot, and now he had to think up a name of a town that didn't exist. He looked around the room and saw a picture of the ocean and went with it.

"Water…" scanning the room quickly he said the next thing that he saw "wall…" looking down at the table he added another name "cup… ville." He cleared his throat and looked at Hercule, wanting to change subjects immediately "So how many times have you won the World's Martial Arts Tournament."

Still recovering from attempting to figure out where this 'Waterwallcupville' was located, Mr. Satan looked at Ginyu and proudly answered his question. "Just one, but I have big hopes for next year!"

"How did you win?" Jeice questioned the champ, who tilted his head and thought of the final battle of the tournament.

"I was just better I guess. Nobody can beat me!" Mr. Satan boasted, taking a sip of the wine that was in front of him. "So Bulma told me you guys wanted to ask me a question?" Hercule said as he placed the glass back down on the table.

"Right, of course." Ginyu lifted himself up out of his chair "I was going to wait until after the meal, but this is important." The captain began to pace back and forth behind his men. "You see, we are a special group of people called the Ginyu Force, named after their captain of course." The other members observed Mr. Satan as his expression changed from one of pride and ignorance to confusion.

"Special group? What the hell does that mean?" Mr. Satan asked, scratching the top of his large afro.

"Well you see, before our boss was…" Ginyu stopped himself and coughed "Uh, disappeared, we were a group of guys who did dirty work." Hercule looked around the room nervously, not liking where this was going "This dirty work paid well, of course." The captain looked over to find that Hercule still looked confused. "You should have seen our last job, we had to collect-"

"Maybe you shouldn't tell him about that cap'n…" Jeice chimed in, interrupting Ginyu.

"Be quiet Jeice, I'm telling a story here!" Ginyu quietly yelled to Jeice, who turned back around in his chair and shook his head in embarrassment. "Anyway, we had to collect seven balls for our boss; he was very pleased when we accepted."

"Uh…" Mr. Satan's feet fell to the floor and he slowly scooted his chair away from the table.

"We found some of the balls, and then we were stopped by someone who wanted the balls too."

"Captain…" Cui attempted to gain Ginyu's attention.

"I just told Jeice not to interrupt!" Ginyu began to pace around the room, unaware that Hercule had already slowly begun to rise up out of his chair. "So we fought him and he took our balls... I don't know what he did with them but we thought maybe we could-"

"_Cap'n_!" Jeice shouted, stopping Ginyu mid sentence.

"What Jeice!? What could be so important that you have to interrupt me?" The captain shouted, looking around the room and noticing that Mr. Satan was nowhere in sight.

"He just ran out of the room, cap'n. He's gone." Jeice explained, pointing towards the wide open door. Ginyu looked out the window and saw Hercule running towards his helicopter, jumping inside of it and immediately taking off. Ginyu didn't say a single word, he just got back into his chair and slammed his head onto the table, nearly breaking it in two.

"I did it again didn't I?" Ginyu said, banging his head on the table a few more times.

"Looks like Frieza rubbed off on you." The green alien chuckled, taking a sip of his wine.

"I just got caught up in the moment!" The captain rose his head up from the table and planted his right palm against his forehead, resting his elbow on the table. "I wanted this to work damn it!" He shouted just as the door to the kitchen opened up.

"Dinner is-"

"_Not now!_" All four men shouted at the server, who shot back in fear and ran back into the kitchen.

"We're out of options men; we need to go to plan Y." Ginyu got up out of his chair and sighed "hopefully she's still here."

"You mean-"

"Yes Jeice, she's the only person left." The captain shook his head in disappointment.

"But she sucked at the audition!" Cui shouted, getting up out of his chair as well.

"You weren't all that great either mate!" Jeice shot back, quickly getting out of his chair.

"Enough!" Ginyu shouted, "Both of you suck, now let's go find that girl and be done with this."

And just like that, the Ginyu Force gave up hope and chose mediocrity over patience. Their surprisingly short journey had been complete, and the next day they had found Fiore, the astoundingly human looking soldier from Frieza's former army and recruited her into the force. She couldn't strike a good pose if her life depended on it; in fact she was so horrible that 'a panda on acid' could do better, at least according to Cui, but there she was, she had finally filled the spot, and now Ginyu and his men (and one women) could now work on something productive; new poses.

* * *

**This closes the chapter on the Ginyu Force's adventures to find a new teammate; did they learn anything along the way? Probably not, but this opens a new chapter for them, one that will test the very fiber of their beings. Will they be able to overcome to trials and tribulations that await them? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

_**Authors Note**_**: This is only partial canon to **_**Piccolo's Choice**_**, to those of you wondering. Fiore will be the official fifth member, but the personality traits displayed by Cui, Jeice, Ginyu and Guldo in this special chapter may change in the upcoming chapter 29, that will be released Friday October 12****th****. I just wanted to make them slightly wackier than usual in order to create laughs, and I truly hope that I did just that!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**

* * *

As the chopper flew away from Capsule Corp., the pilot looked back to find that Mr. Satan had a look of extreme discomfort and seemed to be laying in a fetal position.

"Why did you want to leave so quickly?" the pilot asked, diverting his attention now to the skies ahead of him.

"B-balls…" Hercule spat out, nearly sucking on his thumb "They wanted my balls!"


	31. Chapter 29: Wishes for the Future

**Chapter 29: Wishes for the Future**

Son Goku sat in his home mid morning, holding a picture of his wife in his hands. It had been three days since Frieza had been defeated, but things seemed to have only gotten worse. Goku had been informed by Ox King of Chi-Chi's death, but the culprit remained a mystery to all but Goku himself. He knew in his mind that it had to have been Piccolo, but if it was, then she would have been brought back. It was difficult to think, but the Saiyan kept the thought deep in his mind that perhaps Gohan was indeed the one responsible. Once Goku had finally fully taken in that his family was all but destroyed, he wept. The entire night before, he had wept for his dead son, his wife who had been taken from him while Goku was powerless to help her, and for himself. Goku had never felt sorry for himself before, even when things looked especially bleak, but now he wasn't sure that he could take all of the pain. It was excruciating, he had let Piccolo go all those years ago at the 23rd Worlds Martial Arts tournament, and yet he gave the demon a senzu bean. For all of Goku's good deeds, he had been rewarded with pain and suffering.

Goku took one final look into Chi-Chi's beautiful eyes before he set the picture down on the table next to the bed. He buried his hands in his face and sighed, running his fingers through his hair and back down to his lap. He sat for a few more minutes saying and doing absolutely nothing but stare at the wall until someone knocked on the bedroom door.

"Hey Goku, are you in there?" the Saiyan could tell that the voice belonged to Ox King, Chi-Chi's father. He had already had time to deal with Chi-Chi's death and was taking it rather well after learning, knowing that she could be brought back with two separate pairs of Dragon Balls now.

"Yeah, I'm here Ox King." Goku half heartedly replied, lifting himself off of his bed and walking to the door. Opening it he saw that Ox King had been working outside recently, most likely tending to the garden that Chi-Chi had been working on before she had died. Her father was a wonderful man, and even though she had been taken from him, he didn't ever lose heart.

"I just wanted to check up on you, you seemed like you've been acting strange lately." Goku looked towards the floorboards and sighed.

"My wife is dead and my son died protecting the very man who tore my family apart." He replied, clenching his fists "I think I have a right to be angry." The Ox King averted his gaze and nodded in agreement.

"You're right Goku, but they can be wished back!" His father-in-law reassured, almost patting Goku on the back but refraining out of both respect and fear.

"I can wish Chi-Chi back, but Gohan will never be the same." Goku rose his voice slightly, frightening the larger man slightly "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go train." Ox King moved to the side and allowed Goku to pass, shaking his head in both disappointment in himself and sadness for Goku.

* * *

Elsewhere, things were looking up. There was minimal fighting going on between the Namekians and Frieza's former soldiers, and Bulma made sure to send Yamcha after anyone who had caused trouble in Capsule Corp. She was ecstatic to finally see her mother and father again, who had both been living in constant fear that may never see their daughter again, and so were extremely relieved to know that Bulma had survived throughout her journey. They talked about everything that happened, about Namek, Piccolo, Gohan, and even Frieza, and decided that after they built the ships for the soldiers to get off planet, that Bulma and her parents would find a way to defend themselves against Piccolo, if it came down to it.

Yamcha and Bulma had actually reconnected in the days since he had been wished back; he was supportive, listened to her and seemed like a better man than before he had died. He was focused on two things at this point, which were training and Bulma, and he devoted his time equally to both. Eventually, Puar had reached Capsule Corp. and urged Bulma to allow him to stay with her and Yamcha. She of course agreed and now the three are happily living a normal life, for once. Lod, who had taken a liking of Bulma, decided that he would stay at Capsule Corp. to defend it if anything went wrong. Along with Yamcha, Lod oversaw the soldier's actions to make sure that they didn't cause trouble with the Namekians, and Lod was extremely good at his job.

Many of Frieza's former soldiers had actually chosen to leave Capsule Corp, and attempt to start a new life of their own on Earth. Many of them were rejected due to being aliens, but some were accepted because of their human-like appearances. Many of the Namekians had made themselves home in the extremely spacious Capsule Corp. building, especially in the atrium-like area that was closer to what their planet looked like. All in all, things were peaceful, and everyone was generally happy with what was going on.

However, many had left Capsule Corp. to find their own ways. Goku personally checked every single person who left the Capsule Corp. building to make sure that he could trust them not to cause destruction, and those who he deemed too dangerous would be have to stay with everyone else in Bulma's home. For everyone else, Goku vowed to keep a diligent watch, and if they caused any havoc, Goku swore that he would hunt them down and kill them. When Vegeta asked early to be allowed to train independently, Goku refused to trust him on the grounds that Vegeta had came to Earth not more than a year ago, intent on destroying the Earth for the Dragon Balls, but after Vegeta and Goku had a talk about everything that had happened, both of the Saiyans came to a mutual understanding of each other, at least on a superficial level. Vegeta explained his upbringing, his annihilated home world which he now knew for a fact was Frieza's doing, and his forced servitude to a man he despised. Normally Vegeta would have kept these things from Goku, but in a desperate attempt to get away from all of Frieza's former men and away from the accursed Ginyu Force he would do whatever it took.

Other people such as Tien, Chiaotzu, Trokar, Skriatch and Yajirobe had already left almost immediately following their arrival at Capsule Corp. Goku was wary of the Saibamen, who had been lackeys of Piccolo not long ago, but had ultimately allowed them to roam free. Trokar, he sensed, despite his appearance and past actions, was actually not as evil as he would have originally thought. When Goku looked into Trokar's mind, he saw the same sadness for Gohan that Goku felt himself, and almost immediately allowed Trokar to go free. Skriatch, on the other hand, had to go through a much more strenuous screening process because of his former betrayal. After learning that Skriatch was generally harmless as long as you kept him in line with fear, the Saiyan allowed him to go on the condition that he come back to the Capsule Corp. building once every month so that he could be kept track of.

Among the beings revived by the Dragon Balls, Krayde the Saibamen was not one. When he had died, Krayde was in a different dimension, and thus was unable to be revived by Shenron's powers. Gorth, who had been working with Kami and Popo, had actually been saddened that his brethren was not revived. After he had learned of the wish, Gorth was excited to see the Saibamen who had died in the time chamber, but after Kami had told him that those in a different dimension wouldn't be affected, Gorth's heart sank. Of course, this did not deter the Saibamen in the least, who diligently spent his hours helping Mr. Popo tend to the gardens, tidying up the palace, and generally keep the peace. If there was anything that could cause harm to Kami or Popo, Gorth wouldn't have hesitated for a minute to destroy it. In the short time he had been on the lookout, it seemed as if Kami and Mr. Popo had changed the Saibamen into something completely different.

Tien and Chiaotzu had returned to their usual training spot to hone their skills. They both were extremely delighted to see one another when Tien had been brought back to life, and the three eyed human aimed to keep them both alive, should Piccolo ever return to Earth. Occasionally, he would take Chiaotzu back to the Capsule Corp. building to use their state of the art training equipment, which included a gravity room much like the one that Goku had trained in on his way to Namek. All they did was train, day in and day out, in anticipation for the evil demon that they both despised and hoped to one day overcome and destroy.

* * *

Bulma and Yamcha were having lunch one afternoon, months after Frieza had been defeated on Namek. They sat at a restaurant with several familiar faces, including Lod, Oolong, master Roshi and Puar. The beginning of the meal was met with hearty greetings and laughs, as Bulma and Yamcha hadn't seen master Roshi in quite a while, but as the meal went on, everyone agreed that more serious matters would have to be discussed.

Yamcha moved a single noodle of his spaghetti around on his plate with his fork, looking up to find his former master deep in thought. Everyone had been silent for nearly an entire minute, and every second was torturous to Yamcha, who couldn't stop thinking about Piccolo when he wasn't training or talking to someone. He was secretly ashamed of himself for how pathetic he had been when Piccolo killed him, not being able to do anything while someone who you thought was going to save you actually killed you for no reason, and with minimal effort as well. In fact, the demon not only killed him, but Krillin and Tien as well, which was what really pushed Yamcha to train as hard as he could. After a few more seconds of playing with his food, Yamcha could take the silence no more. "Have you seen Goku lately master Roshi?" He asked, picking up the noodle and placing it in his mouth.

The old man shook his head sadly "Unfortunately no, I tried to call him but he told me he needed to train."

"I tell ya, that guy is gonna train himself to death." Oolong added in, taking a sip of his shake. Roshi nodded and sighed.

"Oolong is right, Goku is changing, and I don't think it's for the better." The turtle hermit pushed his empty plate to the side and rested his elbows on the table.

"But Goku has always loved training." Bulma said, finishing the last of the water in her glass.

"Not like this, Bulma." Roshi began to explain "This kind of training is dangerous, he isn't doing it to better himself, he's doing it for revenge."

"We all want revenge, Master Roshi." Yamcha grimaced. The waitress walked over and grabbed some dishes before the rest of them began to talk again.

"You know as well as I do that we need to stay focused." Roshi said, watching as the waitress walked away. After she turned a corner the old man looked back towards his former pupil "Ill conceived notions of revenge is what's going to get someone killed!"

Bulma nodded and moved around the remaining ice in her cup with her straw "Master Roshi is right Yamcha. Goku, Tien, even you need to calm down and think about something other than Piccolo." She explained, looking at Yamcha as he sighed and shook his head.

"I know, it's tough though, especially for Goku." Everyone but Lod nodded in agreement with Yamcha.

"He lost his wife and son to the person he saved the life of." Puar added, sitting next to Yamcha in a high chair "If anyone has a right to be angry, it's him." Master Roshi shook his head again and sighed in disappointment.

"That's the problem Puar; he's let Piccolo get to him, which is a victory for Piccolo himself." The others looked at master Roshi in a concerned manner "Goku is blinded by his anger, I don't even know if he could ride the nimbus even if he tried to."

"Are you saying-"

"Yes Bulma, Goku is no longer the pure hearted individual we all knew and loved. He's changed." All of Goku's old friends looked away and thought silently to themselves for a moment.

"I can't blame him, he's lost so much." Yamcha stated, looking over to Bulma "if I lost someone that I loved, along with my son, I don't know if I'd ever be the same." Bulma smiled back at Yamcha and grabbed his hand under the table, intertwining their fingers together.

"All I'm saying is the guy needs a break; maybe we should throw him a party?" Oolong suggested, looking around to see if the others approved of his idea.

Roshi shook his head in declination "That may not be a good idea; I don't know how Goku would react to that." Oolong simply shook his head and went back to eating. "Listen to me, all of you." Roshi said in an oddly serious tone. Every single person at the table laid their eyes on the old man. "Expect the unexpected, we might have more to worry about than Piccolo."

* * *

Four months had passed quickly, but Goku still wasn't the same. He never visited Capsule Corp., never talked to anyone unless he had to, and was always training. Despite his best efforts, Goku wasn't able to figure out how or why Gohan was able to gain such massive power in that transformation. It was a complete mystery to him, but Goku was determined to reach a power that could stand up to Piccolo and Gohan as well. He was able to hone his Kaio-Ken technique greatly, but it still wasn't enough, and so he trained harder and harder each and every day. Ox King had grown worried about his son-in-law, he had been the primary caretaker of the house since his daughter had been killed, and he intended to keep everything in working order until she was able to be wished back. Goku, however, acted as if Ox King wasn't even there most of the time, but Ox King understood Goku's ignorance. He was in pain, and anyone could see that just by looking at Goku's face.

One day just after a rigorous training session, Goku arrived back at his home to get a drink. Shortly after chugging down an entire bottle of water, the phone in the living room began to ring. Usually Goku would have Ox King answer it, but of course he was busy with something outside. Goku tossed the empty bottle in the trash and walked over to answer the phone.

"Hello, this is Goku, who is this?" The Saiyan asked after he had picked up the phone.

{_It's Bulma; I have some good news Goku_!} Upon hearing this Goku raised his brow.

"What is it?" Goku wondered, turning to look out the window.

{_I've talked with the_ _Namekian Elder Moori and apparently the Dragon Balls from Namek are ready to be used!_} Goku immediately dropped the phone on the switch hook and ran to the door of his home, sliding on his boots and blasting out the door as quickly as possible. Ox King was outside tending to the garden when he saw Goku overhead. He watched as the Saiyan flew through the sky and eventually disappeared into the horizon.

* * *

The Namekian people were already gathered around the seven Dragon Balls when Goku had arrived. He had made a very speedy arrival that surprised even Bulma, but Goku got right down to business. He looked around and located elder Moori almost instantly, walking up to the new Namekian Guru and introduced himself.

"Hello Elder Moori, my name is Son Goku and I've just heard that these Dragon Balls are able to be used." Moori nodded and smiled at the Saiyan.

"Of course, the transfer of the Dragon Balls recharged them, but we were wary of using them until we knew we could trust you and your friends." The Namekian elder looked towards Bulma, who smiled and waved at him "We have deemed you worthy of our friendship." Goku smiled slightly and turned to look at all seven Dragon Balls bunched together.

"Wow, they're a lot bigger than I remember." He mentioned, turning back to the elder "I was wondering if you or your people had any wishes that they wanted to make before we try to use them." Moori looked around at all of the faces of his Namekian brethren and shook his head.

"We are all content here for now." Moori smiled and placed a hand on Goku's shoulder "We will one day use the Dragon Balls to create a new planet for ourselves, but I have heard that you have some people that need to be returned to life." Goku's small grin turned into a very cheesy smile, he turned to Bulma and motioned for her to come over.

"This is great Goku; these balls have the power to wish back people who've died more than once! Now you can wish both Krillin and Chi-Chi back!" She said ecstatically, giddy with anticipation. From out of the corner of his eye Goku could see Yamcha standing with Puar and a Saibamen. Along with them, Goku saw master Roshi, Oolong, and Mr. and Mrs. Briefs. It was obvious now that Bulma had called just about everyone to be here when the wishes were made.

"And Gohan." Goku finally added, looking back towards Bulma and Moori. Bulma nodded and looked over to Moori who had already chosen someone to summon the dragon.

Many Namekians parted way to allow for a single Namekian child through "I believe this child would like to say hello." Moori explained, patting Gon on the head as he finally had completed his approach.

"Hello Goku." Gon greeted, smiling and patting Goku's arm.

The Saiyan laughed somewhat nervously and rubbed the Namekian child's head just as Moori had "Heya Gon, nice to see you again!" Goku removed his hand from the child's head and Gon chuckled, tugging Goku's arm and leading him closer to the Dragon Balls.

"You helped me so much while I was on Namek; I wanted to return the favor." The boy released Goku's arm and raised his hands towards the Dragon Balls, chanting the words to free the eternal dragon from his slumber.

"Takkaraputo popurunga pupirittoparo!" With those words, the eternal Dragon rose up and turned the sky a darkened shade of grey. Everyone in west city looked in awe of the dragon, including the Namekians themselves.

"Now that's what I call a dragon!" Master Roshi chimed out, watching intently as the dragon began to speak.

"**You who have awakened me from my slumber, I shall now grant you three wishes.**" His grand voice boomed out, surprising many of the humans who thought that he sounded much like Shenron. "**Now, proceed with your wishes.**" Goku turned back to face elder Moori, who was still in awe of Porunga's majesty.

"Are you sure that you're ok with this?" Goku asked. Moori nodded and looked around at his people.

"We're happy here, Goku, we don't mind waiting another 120 days to create a new home." The Saiyan nodded and turned back to Porunga, thinking of who he should bring back first. The answer seemed so obvious that he resented himself for even having to think about it.

"Gon, can you tell Porunga to bring back my wife, Chi-Chi?" The small Namekian child nodded and looked up towards the dragon and began to speak in his own Namekian language.

"[Great dragon Porunga, please bring back the one known as Chi-Chi!]" Gon shouted out, no one beside Goku and Gon knew what the wish was for.

After only a few seconds, Porunga's eyes lit up, as did the Dragon Balls. Out of nowhere, Chi-Chi materialized in front of everyone. Tears came to Goku's eyes as he rushed to his wife and embraced her. "**Your wish has been granted.**"

"Oh Goku, the last thing I remember was our son…"

"Chi-Chi, it's ok, please don't worry about it right now." Goku reassured his wife, holding her tightly and never wanting to let go. Bulma stepped up in Goku's place to ask for the next wish.

"Gon, could you please wish for Krillin to be returned to the living world?" She politely requested of the child, who smiled and nodded at her.

Gon turned back to Porunga and raised his hands once more "[Please, eternal dragon, bring the one known as Krillin back to life!]" Almost immediately after he made his wish, Porunga's eyes lit up. As happened with Chi-Chi, Krillin materialized in front of the group, a very confused look upon his face.

"**Your wish has been granted.**" The dragon stated "**What is your last wish?**"

Krillin looked around at all of his friend's faces and smiled, he didn't care about his current confusion; all he knew was that he was with his friends again. "Hey guys!" He shouted out, waving to everyone and running up next to Yamcha. Krillin's reunion was cut short as he turned to see Porunga. "Whoa, that guy is even more intimidating in real life!" The man said, seeing that Goku and Chi-Chi had embraced each other. Bulma thought over what the next wish should be, wondering if it was a good idea to bring Gohan back to life. Goku let go of Chi-Chi and held her hand as he turned to his blue haired friend, shaking his head in disproval.

"We can't wish Gohan back yet; I'm not strong enough to stop him if he tries anything." The Saiyan explained, horrifying his wife.

"Goku, we have to get our boy back!" She screamed, ripping her hand away from Goku and looking at him as if he were a monster.

Goku sighed and wiped a tear from his eye "I don't want to explain it here, Chi-Chi. You have to trust me."

"Trust someone who doesn't want to bring their own son back to life?" Chi-Chi shouted out, slowly edging away from Goku "Who are you? You aren't the man I married!"

"It isn't that simple Chi-Chi, things have changed!" Yamcha explained, running up behind the frightened and enraged woman, grabbing her arms to attempt to comfort her.

"Get off me Yamcha!" Chi-Chi twisted herself out of Yamcha's grip and fell to her knees. "I can't accept that, my Gohan is a good boy…"

Goku looked towards the ground in shame, it was his fault that this had all happened, and nothing was going to change that. He turned to Bulma, his face solemn and filled with sadness. "Gon has a wish he would like to make." Goku explained, turning his attention to the surprised Namekian boy.

"Are… are you sure?" Gon asked, looking back to elder Moori who nodded in approval.

"Yes, you've been so much help Gon, you deserve this." The Saiyan said, looking back to Bulma who was clearly confused.

"What's going on Goku?" She questioned, turning her attention to Gon.

Goku shook his head and sighed "He made a mistake, Bulma." Goku swallowed and rested his right palm against his forehead "just like all of us. He wished for immortality for himself so that Piccolo couldn't have it." This explanation only served to confuse Bulma even further.

"So what does he want then?" Goku moved his hand and looked directly into Bulma's eyes.

"He wants to wish away his own immortality." Everyone who heard Goku gasped and looked straight at the young Namekian.

"I know what you all must be thinking" Gon said, turning his attention to the group of surprised humans "I've been told that your people always strive for immortality, but…" Goku walked over and placed his hand on Gon's back, giving him the courage to explain himself. "I abused the dragon's power, I've used it selfishly and I deserve the torture of eternal life, but I can't stand to think about it." Many of the humans looked at each other in confusion "Everlasting life isn't the answer, the universe will end someday, why would I want to be there when no one else is?" Gon turned back to the dragon, intent of undoing the biggest failure he had ever made. "[Great dragon Porunga, please, take away the gift of immortality that you have bestowed upon me!]"

Porunga's eyes lit up for the third time, and finally he had completed the wish. "**Your wish has been granted.**" The dragon spoke, relieving Gon greatly "**I have fulfilled three wishes, I am finished here.**" A bright flash of light nearly blinded those who saw it as the dragon rose up into the sky. Everyone watched in awe as Porunga disappeared into an orb of bright light, which then separated and dispersed the seven Dragon Balls of Namek around Earth.

Everyone looked around and smiled at one another, Krillin was back and now things could finally start getting back to the way they were. Bulma ran over to Krillin and gave him a hug, telling him that she missed him which got Yamcha a bit jealous. Krillin began to blush and pushed her away, causing her to scold him for his rude behavior. Goku looked over to his wife, who was still on the floor crying. He walked over to her and knelt down beside her, running his hand through her hair.

"I've missed you so much Chi-Chi." He told her, kissing her forehead "I know you miss Gohan, but he's… changed." Chi-Chi shook her head and continued to cry without saying a word. "Your dad has been taking care of the house, why don't you come say hi to him, he'll be happy to see you."

After a few moments of Chi-Chi not responding, Goku decided to leave her be for now. He got up and walked over to Krillin, who was ecstatic to see his old friend.

"Hey buddy! Long time no see huh?" Krillin punched Goku's arm in a friendly manner, surprised that Goku wasn't in his normal cheery mood.

"Yeah, it's been almost two years now." Goku explained, patting his friend on the shoulder.

"Why don't you and I get together when you sort everything out with Chi-chi and we can talk about what's going on." The small man offered, Goku nodded and allowed Krillin to wander off and talk amongst the people who had missed him. Someone tugged on the back of Goku's shirt, causing him to turn around and find Gon right behind him. The Saiyan knelt down to Gon's level and smiled.

"Thank you so much Goku." The child said "you allowed me to right a wrong, and gave me the strength to explain myself." Goku nodded and was surprised when Gon wrapped his arms around Goku's neck, hugging him tightly. "You're a good person, Goku." Memories of Gohan swept through Goku's mind as he put his arms around Gon, returning his embrace with fondness. Chi-Chi looked up and saw that Goku was holding onto a Namekian child and crying, and decided that perhaps she should listen to his story.

"I'll visit you Gon, I promise." Goku promised through the tears, letting Gon go to return to his people. Chi-Chi walked over to Goku and pulled him up to his full height, hugging him tightly.

"I want to go home." She said, her tears running down onto Goku's shirt.

* * *

Four more months had come and gone almost as quickly as the last, and everyone gathered around the same set of Dragon Balls to make even more wishes. Goku and Chi-Chi had reconnected and now understood each other more deeply. Goku had not yet gained enough power to subdue Gohan, and so they both knew that there was no way that they could bring him back without tragedy striking. Everything else had happened rather smoothly, Krillin now trained every day with Yamcha at the Capsule Corp. building while Tien and Chiaotzu trained separately. Vegeta was still a mystery, but he hadn't caused any trouble as of yet so Goku decided not to worry about it. Skriatch had gone off the grid recently and was undetectable, but so far peace had been prevalent on Earth. Goku could feel the second Saibamen, Trokar, training occasionally, and he always kept a watch on the Ginyu Force. Many of Frieza's men had already left on ships created for them by Bulma's family, but some decided to stay and work for them in payment for allowing them to live at the Capsule Corp. building. To everyone's surprise, Ginyu and his team had decided to stay on Earth, as did Vegeta. When questioned about it, they remained very elusive about the question and preferred not to talk about their reason, but Goku allowed them to stay as long as they weren't a threat to the planet.

This time, many more people came to the summoning of the dragon. Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma, Lod, Puar and many people working at Capsule Corp. wanted to witness an event such as this. Roshi and Oolong came as well, and even Tien and Chiaotzu joined everyone to see what this dragon of Namek would look like in person. Unlikely as it seemed, the Ginyu Force showed up behind everyone else, but Goku could already tell by a large amount of ki in the distance that Vegeta would not be joining them. Gon was chosen to summon the dragon once more, and this time both Moori and Goku had decided on what the three wishes would be used for. Once the dragon was high up in the sky and ready to be asked a wish, Goku walked up besides Gon and laid his hand on the Namekian's shoulder.

"I want you to wish for Gohan's spirit was transferred from where Namek used to be, to Earth." Gon nodded in acknowledgment, turning his attention to the dragon and uttering the wish.

"[Porunga, please wish Gohan's spirit to the planet Earth!]" Porunga's eyes began to glow and quickly receded back into their original state.

"**The one known as Gohan has had his spirit brought to the planet Earth.**" Porunga explained, relieving Goku and Chi-Chi immensely. However, they had both decided that if Gohan was to be revived, it would be by Shenron as to give them more time to prepare. Elder Moori came up to Goku and shook his hand firmly, knowing that they would soon have to say goodbye.

"Go ahead Gon, begin the first wish for your people." Goku encouraged the child, who grinned widely and nodded.

"[Porunga, please transfer the souls of all Namekians killed by Frieza and his men that were not brought back by Shenron's wish to the new planet Namek so that we may wish them back at a later date!]" Porunga paused for a moment as if he was thinking, but quickly granted the wish and was intently waiting on the last.

"**What is your final wish?**" Porunga boomed out, giving the Namekian people hope for their new home.

"This is it, Goku, Bulma, everyone." Elder Moori explained, nodding at Goku and turning to fact the rest of the people who had been so nice to him and his people. "We all respect what you have done for us, and love you as our own." Bulma nearly cried. She had gotten so attached to the Namekians that it was hard to see them go "But we will all think of you in the future, and will remember your kindness should our paths ever cross again."

Bulma waved out her hand "I'll miss you guys!" she shouted, causing many of the Namekians to smile and almost regret leaving the planet. Moori turned back to Gon and nodded. The boy looked towards the ground and then back up to his elder.

"I'm sorry elder, but I wish to stay here with Goku." Moori shot Gon a look of confusion.

"Are you sure about this Gon?" the child nodded and looked up at Goku, who smiled back at him.

"I'm positive, these people need me." Gon explained. Moori sighed and nodded in agreement.

"You may stay, Gon. We will all miss you dearly." The elder pat Gon on the head one last time before the child turned to face Porunga.

"[Porunga, transport every Namekian who lived on planet Namek besides me to the new planet Namek!]" Upon the completion of his wish, a few Namekians vanished into thin air. Many more vanished until only a few were left. Moori turned to face Goku and Gon, looking at them both with a large grin upon his face.

"Take care of him Goku, like I know you will." Goku nodded in affirmation as Moori and the rest of the Namekians vanished. Along with them, the dragon and the Dragon Balls had all vanished, presumably going with the leader of the Namekian people, Moori. Once the sky had returned to its original color, everyone began to settle down and go back to their regular routines.

In the weeks that followed, Gon was taken to Kami's lookout to receive physical training as well as training on how to create a new set of Dragon Balls. Kami had personally requested that he be able to train Gon in case anything should happen to him, so that the Earth could have some hope if the Dragon Balls were ever to go inert. Goku allowed this, and Gon didn't seem to mind either, but seemed intent on living with Goku once his training was complete. Goku had no objections, and neither did Chi-Chi, and so it was settled that they would take Gon into their home and treat him like one of their own.

* * *

Deep in space, a survey team had assembled what was left of Frieza's body. King Cold, the supreme ruler of the northern quadrant of the galaxy oversaw the collection of his son's body and was quickly losing hope that they would be able to rebuild him. His upper half was badly burned, and torn almost to shreds, with his skin being nearly flayed. The King looked over the as construction began, but only 3 hours after the surgery the main doctor walked into the observing chamber.

"What is it, why have you stopped working on my son?" King Cold asked without turning around to face the doctor. Terrified out of his mind, the doctor didn't even know what to say without incurring his king's wrath.

"L-lord Frieza's body…"

"Yes, what about it?" Cold asked harshly, his tail waving in an irritated manner.

"It was too m-mangled, we cannot-" Without any warning at all, King Cold's tail went straight through the doctor, killing him instantly. Guards rushed the doctor out of the room and threw him into the airlock, releasing his corpse into the vast emptiness of space. They returned a few moments later to clean up the blood.

One of the scouts ran into the room as the guards were cleaning up the blood. "Your majesty, I have something you may want to see." King Cold sighed and left the observation chamber with his scout, knowing that Frieza was done for. The scout led Cold to a chamber with a very damaged ship, an odd logo on the outside of it read 'Capsule Corporation' and on the inside the scouts found a journal from someone by the name of 'Bulma.' After reading through the short journal thoroughly, King Cold smiled to himself and handed it to the scout.

"Interesting, so then the people who killed Frieza, they are on this planet 'Earth'?" He questioned the scout, who nodded and looked back at the ship.

"We don't know where this planet is, but if we can reverse engineer this ship, we can find its location."

"Do it. I wish to have a word with the one who defeated my son." King Cold chuckled a dark, chilling laugh and walked to the nearest window, looking out into space. "Earth. I will crush it."

* * *

**What is in store for those on Earth when King Cold finally arrives? Where is Piccolo and why hasn't he returned to Earth? Will Goku ever be able to unlock the same power that Gohan showed? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven  
**


	32. Chapter 30: Questions Unanswered

**Chapter 30: Questions Unanswered**

A year and a half had passed since Frieza's demise on planet Namek and things were finally settling down on Earth. The fighters who had been killed by Piccolo and Vegeta were brought back, and with their new lease on life and the possible threat of Piccolo's return, they all decided to stay in top shape and train. Unbeknownst to then, an even more sinister character was fast on his way to Earth, his mind set on one single prospect; vengeance.

Goku and Krillin were both on Kami's tower that day, sitting on chairs near the garden while catching up on the time's that they had missed out on together. Goku explained his fight against Vegeta, his trip to Namek and his struggle with Frieza, while Krillin talked about his training with Kami before the Saiyans arrived as well as his trek across Snake Way to King Kai's planet. Both Goku and his best friend shared laughs, tears, and smiles as they went through their stories, but Goku was disturbed by one aspect. Nearly all of the things they were telling each other had to do with that demon that had taken his son away from him. Eventually it got to the point where Goku was nearly about to throw a fit of anger, but he never actually came to that point and calmed himself down quickly.

Across the way, Goku and Krillin could see Kami and Gon talking. Kami was teaching Gon that day about what it was like to be the guardian of Earth, and what the responsibilities were. Gon understood the old Namekian guardian very clearly, and it seemed as if Gon had thought of Kami as a sort of grandfather figure, leaning on him when he missed his people, and looking to him for advice whenever he needed help. It had only been five months since Kami had taken it upon himself to teach Gon, but the Namekian child was learning quickly what it took to be a guardian of Earth.

As they watched the two, Krillin thought of Piccolo, and how he could return at any moment.

"Hey Goku, I've been doing a lot of thinking since you brought me back…" Krillin said, turning to his friend who continued to look on at the two Namekians, both were laughing as they saw Gorth attempting to catch a butterfly.

"What is it Krillin?" Goku asked, smiling slightly at the sight of the two happy people. Krillin looked at the ground for a moment but shot his head up and explained what was on his mind.

"It's about Piccolo." The short man solemnly claimed, instantly grabbing Goku's attention.

"Wait, please don't tell me that you mean-"

"Listen to me Goku, we don't know what's going on out there." Krillin interrupted, leaving Goku at a loss for words "For all we know, he could be a hundred times more powerful than he was before!" The former monk sighed and looked back at Kami "All I know is that he could be back any day now, and I don't know if we want that to happen."

Goku looked back at Kami and Gon once more, shaking his head in disappointment. "I know you're right Krillin, but I can't kill Kami."The Saiyan sighed and leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs and burying his face in his hands. After a moment of silence he looked over to Krillin and asked; "Could you?"

Krillin sat back in his chair and said nothing for the longest time, only pondering the future and what would happen if he went through with it. "No, I don't think I could." Goku released a sigh of relief and relaxed in his chair "But who's to say it has to be us?"

Goku immediately shot Krillin a very intimidating look. "No one is laying a hand on Kami, Krillin." The Saiyan explained firmly "Not me, not you, not anyone. I won't have Kami be punished for something he didn't do."

"Why don't we ask Kami what he thinks?" Krillin shot back, almost in an argumentative tone. Goku placed his right hand on his forehead and shook his head back and forth.

"You know what his answer would be Krillin, he would say that he needed to die, that it would be better for everyone." Goku claimed, relaxing his arm and letting it fall to his lap.

"Well why shouldn't we do it then Goku?" The bald man cautiously questioned. Goku tilted his head toward his friend.

"For the same reason I saved Piccolo's life over 7 years ago, because it's the right thing to do." Goku tilted his head forward and watched Kami and Gon once more, this time they were talking about something, but Goku couldn't hear what the subject was. "If I had killed Piccolo, Kami would have died. I didn't want to lose him, he's important to me, just like he's important to this planet." Krillin loosed a defeated sigh.

"You always knew the right thing to say Goku, you're right. Kami is too important to lose." Krillin said, closing his eyes and relaxing.

For a moment the lookout was silent, the only noise was coming from Kami and Gon now, and the two friends found that they were somehow happy that they could find solace in nothing at all. Relaxation wasn't usually something that Goku could say he enjoyed, but right now, with his best friend by his side, he knew that everything was going to be ok.

"Say, Goku, you never did use the Dragon Balls after you found all seven of them." Krillin told his friend after a long time of silence between the two. Goku opened one eye to show Krillin that he was paying attention "Why not use the wish to bring back Gohan yet?"

Goku opened his other eye and looked away from his friend, deliberately not answering his question. It was true that he hadn't used the wish to bring back his child yet, and Chi-Chi was about ready to attack Goku when he told her that he was going to wait on it. However, she still understood that Gohan was massively powerful and that Goku needed more training to catch up to their son's strength. What Chi-Chi didn't know however, was that Goku actually _had _caught up, and was keeping his reason for bringing Gohan back a secret from her…

* * *

_Seven months earlier…_

_The cold wind brushed across the Saiyan's face as he looked up into the sky, a cold look of determination upon his face. The deserted wasteland served a reminder to the warrior of his failures, of all the things that he should have done. Goku continued looking up at the un-answering stars, which seemed to force more questions upon the man than they answered. Why had he come here to this one place?_

_It was where he had saved a demon's life 7 years ago._

_Throughout his life he had dedicated himself to the cause of righteousness, to friendship and compassion. He had learned throughout his journey as a young boy that if you forgive, that if you save those in need, good things will come of it. As he stared up into the dark, empty sky, Goku felt an anger that he had never felt in his life._

_Everything that he had ever learned; compassion, good over evil, forgiveness… was it all a lie? Why was he looking for answers here of all places? He didn't know, and it only angered him further. He had been put to the test here; he had used all of his compassion to save that creature, and look what became of it._

_Images of his son's face rushed into Goku's mind, all of them of a happier time, when he and Chi-Chi used to play with their son and Gohan would affectionately hold onto his father. A tear came to the man's eye, for a brief moment he believed that it was all a dream, that Piccolo had changed and that Gohan was back at home with Chi-Chi, tucked into his bed._

_A flash of the demon's face was all the Saiyan needed to be reminded of what was at stake, what he had lost, and what the future could hold if he failed again. Another image flashed of the Namekian and physically pained Goku to the core of his heart, and he collapsed to his knees. Another quick flash of Gohan's face when he attacked his own father illuminated his mind, forcing Goku down on his hands. _

_It all had culminated to this point, he was a failure. He failed his family, he failed his friends, and he couldn't even defeat Frieza when it really mattered. _

_No more._

_Tears fell from his face, and soon drops of cool liquid could be felt on his back. The dirt became stained with the rain, but Goku didn't notice. He had gotten Chi-Chi back, but at what cost? Was his son lost forever?_

_No more._

_Goku's arms became shaky, and soon he was unable to support himself. He fell to his forearms and continued his self pity. He wanted to die, right there. It was desperation, he deserved it, or so he thought. His failures led him back to this one spot, where his greatest failure of all was staring him straight in the face. Goku was broke and beaten… who had really won that day 7 years ago at the Worlds Martial Arts tournament? All of his friends came to mind in that moment, all of them cheering him on during his battle, all willing to make a sacrifice if they needed to. They were all there with him, but they weren't there against Vegeta, against Frieza. The Saiyan shook his head and clenched his teeth, rising up from the dirt in defiance of his own self loathing. He owed it to them to continue, he owed it to everyone who had ever counted on him before, but most importantly he owed it to his son. He wouldn't fail again. He couldn't fail again._

_No more._

_Goku's screams roared out into the cold, empty sky, filling it with the sound of hope, the sound of courage, and the sound of resolve. He didn't need answers in this place, he needed to find his own answers, and this was it. Drops of water poured down on his face as he shouted to the sky, his aura bursting to its absolute limits and pushing the rain away from him. His mind raced rapidly, thoughts of Krillin and Yamcha dying at the hands of Piccolo enraged him and filled him with a sense of purpose. The irises in his eyes began to fade as his hair began to stand on end and change colors. The dark night was soon illuminated by Goku's display of power and determination._

_With one final scream of dignity and righteousness, Goku's aura exploded and changed into a golden hue. No sooner had his irises disappeared than when they returned to him, not green in color. The shouting stopped, and Goku was now overwhelmed by what he had accomplished. This is what he had seen on Namek, this is what his son had displayed. Filled with vigor and hope, Goku sighed and released this new power, returning home to collect his mind…_

* * *

"Well, why can't you do it Goku?" Krillin asked again, wondering why his friend seemed to be ignoring him. Goku turned back to his friend with an expression of total sadness.

"If you want the truth Krillin, I'll give it to you." Goku replied. The former monk instantly nodded his head and listened closely. "I have the power to control him, but…" The Saiyan looked away in shame, wondering if what he was doing was fair to his child.

"But what Goku?" Asked Krillin "I'm sure that you have a reasonable explanation." Goku shook his head for a moment and turned back to face Krillin.

"I don't know if I should yet, he's not the same Gohan as I remember." Goku explained, hoping that his friend would have some comforting words.

"I don't know Goku, that doesn't sound like you at all…" His friend curiously stated, examining Goku's face to see what he was thinking.

"I know, but I just want to make sure that if I bring him back, I'll be prepared too." The short man nodded upon hearing Goku's words.

"That makes more sense, but don't wait too long Goku, Gohan might not be happy if he finds out it's been two years since his death." Krillin warned. Goku noted his friend's words and looked back over to the two Namekians, wondering what they were talking about. Gon looked over to Goku and smiled, running over to him and pointed towards Kami.

"Kami wants to talk to you, Goku!" Gon explained, walking back over to the old Namekian with Goku in tow. Krillin stayed seated and relaxed.

"What is it Kami?" The Saiyan asked, stopping a few feet away from his old friend. The guardian of Earth pat Gon on the head and gestured for the child to get into the lookout. Gon complied and walked into the hut, Popo followed afterwards to watch after the Namekian child.

"I've been feeling him Goku…" Kami said, turning around to look over the edge of the lookout. Goku's breath was stolen away from him upon hearing Kami's words. "I shook it off at first, but it's been getting stronger and stronger now."

"What do you mean, Kami?" Goku questioned, already knowing what he was talking about.

"Piccolo will be here soon." The Namekian foretold, looking up into the sky as if attempting to sense Piccolo's energy.

"Damn, I thought I had more time!" Goku shouted, alerting Krillin, who walked over to the two of them.

"What's going on guys?" He asked, wondering why Kami was staring up into the air.

"He's almost here, and you must kill me if you want to stop him." Kami claimed in a bold fashion, moving his head downwards to think. Goku and Krillin looked at each other and shook their heads.

"We couldn't do that Kami, without you there's no Dragon Balls." Goku told the guardian, who nodded and turned to face the two concerned men.

"I understand why you are so hesitant, but Gon has already learned how to create a new set of Dragon Balls." The old Namekian rested against his cane, clearly he had been up far longer than he should have while teaching Gon "I have no doubt in my mind that this Namekian child will make a far more effective guardian of Earth than I."

"No, Kami, we can't do that to you." Goku firmly stated, balling his fists and changing his expression to one of determination "I'm stronger now, I can defeat Piccolo when he comes and make sure that he never hurts anyone else ever again."

Kami shook his head slowly and sighed. "That's a wonderful sentiment Goku, but you tried this before, it didn't work." Goku's heart nearly stopped when the Namekian mentioned his former failure "I should have taken responsibility and had Tien kill me when I had the chance. I'm sorry Goku, but if you want this world to be safe, I must be destroyed."

It was as if a dagger had been plunged into both of their hearts. Although Krillin had entertained the idea, he had never _truly _thought about killing the one person that he felt the world needed most. Both of the men in the presence of the guardian of Earth were extremely conflicted at this point, they knew that Kami's words were not to be taken lightly, but they couldn't just destroy someone who had helped them so much on their former quests. Kami waited patiently for their answers, but no answer came for the longest time. The two were deep in thought, but ultimately Goku decided that even if it were for the best of mankind, he couldn't destroy Kami.

"I can't… you're the very embodiment of everything I've ever fought for, Kami." Goku told his former mentor "If I killed you, I would be taking the coward's way out. No. I'll fight Piccolo myself and I'll make sure that you aren't harmed in any way."

"Goku's right" Krillin chimed in, just as convinced as Goku was "Piccolo might be strong, but there's nothing that we can't do if we put our minds to it. If there's one thing I've learned from hanging out with this guy-" Krillin pat his friend Goku on the back "-it's that you should _always_ count on your friends!" Goku looked toward Krillin and smiled. Kami shook his head once again.

"You never cease to amaze me, Goku. You would have made a fine guardian of Earth." Kami earnestly stated, causing Goku to laugh nervously.

"Hey now, that's why we have you right?" Goku chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. Krillin looked up at Goku and began to laugh at his nervousness, as did Kami. The three of them shared their laughter until something caught all three of their attentions.

A huge power had just presented itself.

"That feels like-"

"No, it's too strong, it can't be him." Krillin interrupted, powering himself up. Goku's aura instantly exploded and the two were off to find out who this power belonged to.

At Capsule Corp. the Ginyu Force had also felt the power, having trained themselves to sense ki rather than rely on scouters. Against the wishes of Bulma, the five of them took off in the direction that the power was coming from. After the Ginyu's had gone, Bulma interrupted Yamcha's training and forced him to fly her over to where the others were heading.

Others had also felt the strange and yet immense power, including Tien and Chiaotzu, who immediately took off to investigate. Vegeta was also one of the many who was able to sense the power, and he too rushed off to find out what was going on.

Despite his prior disappearance, Trokar also decided that he should check out what this immense power was, just in case it was Piccolo returning from space or Gohan coming back to life.

Mere minutes after the power had been felt by the fighters, Goku and Krillin arrived on the scene. In front of them was a small machine, big enough for only a single person. It appeared to them that whoever owned the power was still inside of the vehicle, and had not exited yet for an unknown reason. Tien and Chiaotzu arrived soon after, followed by the Ginyu Force, Yamcha and Bulma, Vegeta and Trokar.

"What the hell is going on here?" Vegeta shouted, wondering what the hell this new energy was.

"I don't know Vegeta, calm down." Goku ordered, not taking his eye off of the machine for a moment.

"How dare you try to order me around!" Vegeta shouted, pushing his way through the crowd of people and standing behind Goku "You might have been able to fight Frieza but I am the prince of all Saiyans, and I've been training mercilessly for the day I can _kill_ you!"

"Oh shut up, Vegeta, you couldn't even hurt _me _if you tried." Captain Ginyu taunted, enraging the short tempered Saiyan.

"Would you like to test that Ginyu?" Vegeta goaded, turning to face the purple alien.

"Maybe I would, my men and I have been training too, you know." Both of them got into a fighting stance when Yamcha walked in between the two of them.

"That's enough from you two!" Yamcha shouted, looking directly at Vegeta "We've just found some mysterious power and all you can think about is fighting?"

"Get out of my way, you're nothing to me human." The Saiyan boasted. Ginyu backed down and smirked, knowing that Vegeta stood no chance against the man who had been training so rigorously.

"Don't forget who put you down a year back, Vegeta." The man reminded. Vegeta moved in for a surprise attack when a fist was rammed into his face, sending him skidding across the Earth. Yamcha looked around and found that Tien had been the offender.

"Don't get up anytime soon, Vegeta, or I'll have to teach you another lesson." Tien warned, which would have angered the Saiyan greatly had he not been in so much pain. The entire Ginyu Force began to laugh at the Saiyan prince's misfortune.

"Good to see you, Tien, why didn't you visit?" Yamcha asked, walking up and grabbing onto Tien's hand firmly. After they let go of their clutch, Tien turned to Chiaotzu.

"We've been doing some non-stop training." The three eyed man explained, "We wanted to make sure that if Piccolo ever showed his face that he'd be sorry."

"Right on!" Yamcha shouted, pumping his fist in the air "I've been doing quite a bit of training myself." The man began flexing his muscles in a joking fashion "I might even be stronger than Goku by now!"

Krillin started laughing "In your dreams!" He chuckled, turning to face his old friend. Yamcha was about to make a rebuttal when the group heard a noise coming from the dome shaped machine. It sounded like steam, and as soon as the sound faded, a doorway began to open. At first no one could see anything but a silhouette of a person, but as their eyes adjusted they could begin to make out features of the man's face.

Everyone gasped in shock and surprise. The man had short, black hair, an 'x' shaped scar just below his left eye, which was closed due to an even more grisly scar. There was another scar that traveled from the bottom right of his face to the bottom of his right eye, which was still functioning, to the middle of his forehead. He was wearing a gi similar to Goku's, but his was completely black with a red belt around his waist, along with a sheath for a sword attached to the belt. He wore blue boots that looked similar to Goku's, but they were worn and looked as if they had seen some horrendous battles. The look on his face was that of some kind of forlorn hope as he walked out of his machine and down to the people who looked at him in awe. His arms were muscular and toned, although scars were all over them. He looked extremely tired, as if he had just been running away from something, but no one said a single word, they were all too confused and surprised to say anything.

The man himself had to break the silence.

"Goku, it's… so good to see you again." The Saiyan nearly choked on himself before he could say a single word to the man.

"Is… is that you?" Goku asked, walking closer to the man and looking over his face more carefully.

"Yes, it's me," He paused, looking over to his past counterpart "I'm Yamcha."

Everyone was speechless.

"No, that's impossible, that's Yamcha right there!" Bulma shouted at man she knew to be an imposter. The man looked at Bulma for a moment and didn't speak a single word, to the others it looked as if he was thinking deeply of something else, but he regained his composure and attempted to explain why he was here.

"No, it's hard to believe, but it's true." He said, looking back at the machine he came out of "I'm from the future." Out of all of the people, Yamcha was the one who was most skeptical.

"Time travel isn't possible, that's just for science fiction stories and bad movies." Yamcha claimed, "You aren't me, you're just some guy who looks like me."

The 'future' Yamcha shook his head in disagreement. "Time travel is possible, you were the one who created this machine…" The man stopped himself for a moment "… Bulma." The group looked at the blue haired woman in surprise.

"I never built anything like that!" Bulma protested, crossing her arms in defiance.

"Not yet, but in the future you will." 'Future' Yamcha said, looking around at all of the confused faces. "I know this must be hard for you to handle, but I'll try to explain as best I can."

"Please, do." Ginyu said, causing 'future' Yamcha to shoot him a very angry expression. Ginyu shot back in both fear and surprise.

"Not yet, we need to wait for Piccolo." He said, surprising many of the people around him.

"What?!" Tien shouted "When will he get here?"

"If Bulma's calculations were correct, he should be here in a few hours." The man explained.

"A few hours?" Krillin wondered aloud "Why didn't you just come back to the past a few minutes before Piccolo?"

'Future' Yamcha nearly smirked and looked up into the sky "Because Frieza's father will be here any minute."

There was a collective group "What!?" that rung out into the quiet air.

"No, not King Cold…" Vegeta softly said to himself.

"That's right, and he's unlike anything you've ever faced." 'Future' Yamcha turned back to the group.

"That's impossible, we would have sensed him coming by now!" Tien claimed.

"You've all been paying attention to me, focus your senses…" He replied, causing the warriors who could sense powers to close their eyes and use their abilities to feel the massive power quickly coming to Earth. Upon seeing the faces of the frightened group, 'future' Yamcha continued "you'll be able to feel how powerful he is."

"He's going to be here in just a few minutes." Goku told the group, who all stayed put despite the danger. "Didn't you hear me, everyone needs to leave!"

"You must be insane if you think I'm going anywhere Goku." The current Yamcha said, clenching both of his fists tightly.

"We've trained every day for something like this!" Tien added. Chiaotzu nodded and gave a thumbs up.

With absolutely no provocation, 'future' Yamcha lifted his palm and shot an extremely powerful beam of ki directly at Ginyu. The blast struck him in the chest and was sent straight through him, killing the purple alien almost instantly. Everyone looked at the dead corpse and then at the perpetrator, some of them with a look of disgust and others in utter confusion.

"What the hell was that!?" Jeice shouted, extremely angered at the death of his captain.

"He was going to betray you in your battle against Frieza's father" 'Future' Yamcha assured the group "I just saved your life Chiaotzu." Chiaotzu's eyes shot open when he heard this strange man's words. "As for you guys" 'Future' Yamcha pointed at the four remaining mercenaries, a deadly gaze in his eye "You should all get back to Capsule Corp. before I add your corpse's to his." Despite his own intense anger, Jeice knew when to fold, and he ordered the rest of Ginyu's men back to their current residence at the Capsule Corporation building.

Goku was the most shocked by this man's actions, and was actually hurt by Ginyu's death. "He didn't even do anything wrong!" Goku said angrily, catching 'future' Yamcha's attention.

"He would have" The man replied, crossing his arms in defense "And I just saved someone's life." He stated, looking straight into Goku's eyes "I know how you are Goku, but you've got to understand that sometimes you need to do things for the better of the group, even if it seems wrong." Goku shook his head, not wanting to believe this 'future' Yamcha for a second.

"You can't condemn someone for something they haven't done yet!" The Saiyan shouted out, surprising many people who wouldn't have expected Goku to act in such a way.

"We have bigger things to worry about Goku, you can lecture me later, but we need to focus on Cold." 'Future' Yamcha proclaimed. Vegeta had finally gotten up dusted himself off, brushing away his humiliation for a moment to fully take in the magnitude of the situation he found himself in. There was a time machine, right in front of him, and a time traveler that was dumb enough to leave it open. Perhaps he could find a way to get on it while the fools were battling Cold.

'They have no idea what they're about to be up against' Vegeta thought to himself 'At least I'll be able to get out of here in one piece.'

"How strong is he, uh…" Tien stopped for a send, wondering what he should call this 'future' Yamcha.

"Just call me Scar; it's what everyone who didn't know my real name called me." Scar explained.

"Right. Well, how powerful is this guy?" The three eyed human asked, hoping that maybe he wouldn't be quite as strong as Frieza was.

"You're about to find out, here he is." Scar pointed up into the sky at the ship that was slowly descending to the ground. The ship was far enough away that the fighters had to fly in the direction of the ship so that they could be able to see what was going on. Everyone but Bulma, Goku and Scar had taken off, the former for obvious reasons but the ladder two were still locked eye to eye. Goku didn't fully trust this version of Yamcha, not only did he not act like the Yamcha he had known for his whole life, but despite his voice he sounded like a completely different person. Scar broke eye contact with the Saiyan and shifted his eyes to the dirt below him.

"I'll explain everything later, Goku." Scar said, looking back up at his old friend "I know that I don't seem like I'm really Yamcha, but you have to trust me for now."

"I'll trust you once you can prove to me that you deserve my trust." The Saiyan rebutted, taking off in the directions that the others had. Scar was about to take off when Bulma caught his eye, she was slightly in shock at what she had seen and was deeply in thought, so she had not noticed when the 'future' Yamcha had taken a few moments to look at her before clicking a button on a remote and cloaking the time travel machine. He then turned around and blasted off, meeting with the others shortly after who were all a safe distance away from the ship that housed the incredibly powerful being.

The doors to the ship had yet to be opened, and the group of powerful warriors sat in place, waiting for the right time to strike. As far as they knew, these soldiers still needed scouters to be able to sense powers, and so if they were able to hide their power then they would be able to surprise King Cold and get the jump on him.

All of the fighters seemed rather anxious, with the notable exception of this 'future' Yamcha, who seemed rather confident. Goku took a particular notice of this and wondered if what this man had seen in the future had changed him from the Yamcha he knew today into the one that Scar claimed he was. It didn't matter in any case now, as the doors to the ship opened up and soldiers began flying out of the door and lined up in formation outside. Each and every one of them had a scouter on their face, and each looked deathly terrified. As the last soldier took up formation alongside the other soldiers on either side of the ramp that led into the ship, a figure could be seen making his way down the ramp. From what the warriors could tell, this fighter was much taller than Frieza, and Goku for a moment remembered that he looked suspiciously similar to Frieza in his second form. Everyone could tell that this sinister being was probably King Cold, but as all of the soldiers saluted, they were now absolutely sure of it. The purple alien walked right into the middle of all of his men and turned around, looking at the faces of all of his men.

"That guy is huge!" Krillin whispered to the others. Goku shushed him and listened closely as King Cold began to talk.

"Men, you have your orders." Cold's voice sounded much more authoritative and intimidating than Frieza's, frightening the other fighters further. "You are to bring to me the most powerful fighters on this planet." King Cold abruptly grabbed a random soldier's neck that was closest to him and snapped it, killing the poor soldier instantly "You are to bring them to me, and if you kill them, you will suffer a fate far worse than this fool did."

A person landed a few yards in front of all of Cold's soldiers. Goku and the rest of the fighters looked around to see that while they were paying attention to Cold, Scar had slipped away undetected. Cold dropped the carcass of the soldier he had killed and turned his body completely around to face this human.

"You are quite bold, human." Cold smirked, crossing his arms "Will one of you tell me his power level?" Many soldiers clicked on their scouters, and all of them came to the extremely small number of six.

"It's only six your majesty!" One soldier exclaimed, they would have laughed at this person's pathetic power had they not been so afraid of their ruler.

"Hah, such a pathetic power and yet you stand before me, King Cold, ruler of the known universe!" The King heartily and cruelly laughed this weak and insignificant being, confident that no one on the planet could so much as lay a finger on him. As he wound down he noticed that the human had not yet moved "What are you waiting for? Kill him." He ordered. Upon hearing his words, hundreds of powerful soldiers bared down on him, firing their blasters over and over again until a smoke cloud filled the air. They all watched laughed and were about to turn around when they noticed a figure coming out of the smoke.

Scar was calmly walking out of the giant cloud of smoke, a grin on his face.

Faster than most of the Z fighters could tell, the 'future' Yamcha had taken out his sword, which Goku could tell was an upgraded version of the one Yamcha used as a bandit, and began cutting the army to ribbons. Soldier after soldier were being slaughtered right before the fighters eyes, none of Cold's men could tell what was going on, and none of them were able to keep up with the swift movements that he was making. Many of the soldiers randomly fired their blasters into the sky, hoping that they would be able to hit something, but all that they managed to do was singe the ground. The screams of the soldiers filled the air as one after another they were killed, and finally there remained only Cold. As Scar took the last swing of his sword and sliced the frightened soldier in half, he looked over towards the King, who had been grinning the whole time.

"Bravo, I must say that was a wonderful show." Cold claimed, clapping his hands slowly in a mocking fashion. "Perhaps you aren't as pathetic as I took you for." His hands ceased their clapping movements and Cold returned to his cross armed position." Scar slid his sword back into its sheath and turned to face the tyrant, the grin that he had worn while cutting through Frieza's men had instantly faded.

Fearing that Scar was in danger, Goku instantly pushed himself into his super Saiyan state and rushed to the side of the man who claimed he was from the future. The remaining fighters were astounded at the power that Goku exuded, Vegeta especially, who now was losing hope that the legend of the super Saiyan was about him. However, all of the fighters but Vegeta shook their surprise and flew behind Goku and Scar.

"We're here for you guys!" Tien stated, taking up a fighting position.

"Right, we're not gonna let this guy destroy our planet!" Krillin added, also positioning his body so that he would be ready to strike. The rest of the fighters all followed Tien and Krillin's lead, but as Goku turned his head, it was clear that he didn't approve.

"Get out of here now!" He shouted at his friends, desperation in his voice. "He's too powerful! You need to leave!" Scar nodded his head and looked back to the humans and Saibamen he used to know.

"He's right, this is too dangerous." Scar warned, shaking his head from side to side "We can handle this guy, you guys should take Bulma and get as far away from here as possible." The fighters looked at each other and then back to Scar, nodding their heads as they eased their bodies and began to take off.

Goku looked over to Scar, his facial expression had shifted from a desperate one to one of determination. "You should leave too; I don't think you can handle this."

Scar let loose a single undeterred chuckle, moving himself into a fighting stance similar to that of what Yamcha had taken up before. Noticing that the others had left and that the fighting was about to begin, King Cold moved his head from side to side and cracked his neck, releasing his regal cape and letting it fall to the ground. Goku shook his head and turned his attention back to the purple demon, powering up to a level he felt could defeat this new enemy. Scar looked over to Goku one last time, a bold smile across his face.

"I think it's time I showed you what a human can do when they've been pushed to their limits."

* * *

**What role will this 'future' Yamcha play in the the lives of the heroes? Will he be able to fight equally alongside Goku against this new demon King Cold? Why has 'Scar' come to the past in the first place? All these questions and more will be answered after the climactic battle with King Cold on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	33. Chapter 31: Power Unmatched

**Chapter 31: Power Unmatched**

King Cold stared at the two opponents standing before him, arms crossed in a very confident manner. One he could tell was a Saiyan, albeit with golden hair and no tail, and the other was a human, who as a whole were relatively weak. His son had wiped out one of their races many years ago with no problem, but perhaps this Saiyan was the one who had destroyed Frieza and humiliated the Cold family. No matter, he would crush both of these opponents and make sure that everyone in the galaxy knew who the strongest being in the galaxy was; he would remind them of why they feared and revered him. A quick glance at the human and he could tell that the scarred one was not even slightly afraid in this situation, he obviously had no idea who he was dealing with or he would have run like all the others. The Saiyan, however, seemed to be very confident, and yet agitated at the same time. He would be the weak link, and Cold could already tell that just by analyzing the two fighters.

"So, which one of you killed my son?" Cold asked as he surveyed the two fighter's faces, trying to find any trace of guilt among them.

Goku looked over to Scar, who didn't take his eyes off of Cold for a moment. The Saiyan looked back over to his adversary and shook his head.

"Neither of us, it was a Namekian named Piccolo." Goku stated truthfully. King Cold chuckled softly at first, which grew to an evil cackle as it went on for a few seconds.

"And here I was, thinking that I may get a challenge out of you." Cold uncrossed his and bent down slightly, powering himself up "It's too bad, I haven't had a good fight in many years!" Before the tyrant could make a move, Goku noticed a red aura surrounding Scar as he immediately rushed off. Cold was taken off guard as the human rammed his fist straight into Colds face, sending him flying off into a nearby mountain and causing it to crumble and fall on top of him. Goku rushed to Scar's side, amazed at what he had just witnessed.

"That was incredible!" Goku exclaimed, bringing his attention to the rapidly moving dust cloud. It was pushed away very quickly by a massive output of energy. Rocks and debris began to lift into the air as Cold's aura exploded, creating a sizeable crater in the ground below him.

"Don't give him a chance to power himself up!" Scar shouted as another red aura surrounded his usual white one, rushing at Cold with Goku in tow. Cold created a shockwave that pushed against the two fighter's bodies, slowing them as they tried desperately to reach Cold.

The king was off before Goku and Scar could balance themselves from the shockwave. He tackled Goku, punching him straight in the chest and grabbing his right leg before he could get away. The human rushed to Goku's aid and slammed his elbow into Cold's back, causing him to release Goku just before he planned to throw him into the ground.

Cold turned around immediately, whisking his tail at Scar so quickly that it hit him in the face and sent him spiraling leftwards. The human regained his balance midair just as the King was about to slam his fists down on the human, who had seen the move coming and dodged faster than anyone could see. As the tyrant's arms followed through, hitting only air, he looked around and was met with a strong yet swift kick by the golden haired Saiyan, charging at Cold as his body flew through the sky.

Scar had already placed himself above Cold in the air, his aura exploded once more in the red color which indicated a Kaio-Ken, and released a huge wave of ki attacks that headed directly at Cold. Goku noticed the blasts just in time to move out of the way, and many of the blasts landed and hit Cold midair, damaging him greatly as he was pushed towards the ground by the small ki attacks. Goku looked up at Scar with a concerned look on his face, but Scar was too focused on Cold to even glance at his ally in battle.

Before Cold hit the ground, he put up his arms and blocked the last remaining ki blasts, twisting himself around and lightly tapping the ground with his open palm, thrusting himself upwards at an amazing speed. Goku was the first to rush after him, his fist at the ready as he threw it towards Cold's face. The tyrant grabbed Goku's hand and held it there as Scar flew in as well, with Cold also grabbing his hand with a fierce grip. Using all his strength, Cold twisted his body to the left, lifting Scar up into the sky and throwing him straight and the ground. Goku used his free hand to blast Cold straight in the back, causing his grip on Goku's hand to loosen. The golden haired Saiyan took advantage of his situation and used both of his legs to kick King Cold in the spot he had blasted, freeing himself and sending the king barreling through the sky.

Scar gently landed on the ground, his boots making contact with the ground so lightly that the earthy soil around him was undisturbed. Scar looked up into the sky to find Cold in a very open position for an attack, and so he bent down and threw himself into the sky as quickly as he possibly could, launching at such an astonishing pace that not even Goku had been able to see Scar ram his fists into Cold's back. Scar continued to thrust upwards, Cold being a very unwilling passenger as he threw his arms around, attempting to grab onto to something – anything that could get him out of this situation.

In a swift, fluid motion, Scar released his hold on Cold and flipped around, kicking Cold in the back with his legs and launching himself at the ground. Scar positioned himself so that he was facing the king and threw two massive balls of ki straight at Cold, twisting his body so that he was able to land on the ground feet first, throwing his arms behind his back and charging an attack.

"Kamehameha!" Scar shouted quickly, shooting the beam upwards at Cold, who barely had any time to react.

Goku and Scar both observed as the ki attacked bore down on their adversary, crashing into him with a massive amount of force. A huge ball of smoke was created by all of the energy, one which neither Goku nor Scar could see through, but both of their faces turned to one of surprise when they felt that Cold's energy was still strong. Out of the smoke came the horned king, charging his entire body straight at Scar.

The human's eyes widened as he blasted off to the side. Cold was quickly gaining on him before he could tell that Goku was tailing him as well.

The Saiyan grabbed onto Cold's leg, catching him by surprise and throwing him away from Scar, allowing the human time to slow himself and arrive next to Goku. The two of them looked at each other and nodded, shooting to either direction and attempting to flank Cold on either side. The king flew backwards as quickly as he could, throwing ki blasts at the two as they inched closer to him. Goku and Scar both deflected as many of the blasts as they could before Goku began charging an attack of his own. The Saiyan threw his left arm back and gathered a concentrated ball of ki in his hand, still holding his attention on Cold. After only a few moments of charging, Goku threw his arm forward and released the ki at the king, who threw up his forearms in defense.

The super Saiyan's ki attack connected with Cold, who ceased movement in order to try and deflect the attack. Scar took advantage of the situation and flew around to Cold's back, charging a ki attack and blasting it towards the kings exposed back. The frost demon quickly threw one of his hands behind him and blasted a ki attack of his own towards the one that Scar had sent towards him, meeting it in the middle and overpowering it slightly.

"Damn, he's stronger than I remember…" Scar said to himself, muscles tensing as he attempted to turn the tide of the beam struggle. His red aura began to increase in size, becoming more and more vibrant as he threw out more ki for his attack. The human's muscles expanded even further as he put more and more power into the beam, and finally Cold's beam was beginning to head towards the demon himself. Finding himself outdone on both sides, he released control of his ki attack and flew straight up, with the two ki attacks of his adversaries soaring and nearly connecting with each other before flying away in different directions.

Cold flew down to Scar immediately and thrust his left leg down at the unsuspecting human, contacting his left arm and sending him flying to the horizon. With astounding resilience, Scar dug the fingertips of his right hand into the dirt and slowed himself, pushing his boots into the dirt as well and using what little momentum he had to push himself towards king Cold.

The demon turned as fast as he and was met with a devastating punch to the face by Goku, who turned his body to the left using his momentum and slammed his right leg into Cold's back, sending him crashing down to the Earth. The Saiyan tossed a few well aimed ki attacks down towards the demon to damage him as well, looking over to see that Scar was already charging forward.

Cold bent his body back just enough so that he was able to land on the palms of his hands, pushing his body forward and blasting off, being closely chased by the balls of ki that Goku had sent after him. Quickly twisting himself around, Cold kicked one of the ki balls away and grabbed the other, crushing it in his palm.

Both Scar and Goku flew a few yards in front of Cold before they stopped to catch their breaths. Scar was noticeably tired, but they could tell that Cold was already wearing himself out as well. As the king straightened his posture, he turned to face the two challengers and smiled.

"Fantastic show!" Cold shouted to the two warriors, unwavering in their focus on their powerful opponent. "If I didn't know any better, I would say that you lied to me about not killing my dear son Frieza." Goku smiled and relaxed his posture.

"I fought him, you know." The Saiyan announced, piquing the interest of his opponent. Cold's eyes flared up upon hearing the Saiyan's words, crossing his arms inquisitively.

"Oh you have? Then you know of his ability to transform?" Cold raised an eyebrow at the two fighters, who both gasped and rushed after their opponent as quickly as they could. Cold threw his arms out to the side and charged himself with an immense amount of power. The output of energy was astonishing, pushing back the two fighters as they tried to approach the king in vain.

"I should have told you about this!" Scar shouted towards Goku as his red aura increased in size. Goku didn't say a word as he tried breaking through the barrier that the tyrant had put up to stop the two from harming him while transforming.

* * *

"This is insane!" Krillin shouted, observing the battle along with Tien, Vegeta and Trokar, who had all decided to stay.

"You knew that Frieza could transform, why is this any surprise?" Vegeta scoffed at the surprised people surrounding him. He had tried to find the time machine, but when he had gone back to where this 'Scar' person had landed, he couldn't find a trace of it anywhere. Despite his immense fear of the Frost King, he decided that he may as well stay, in case the two idiots fighting him were actually able to kill him.

"I can't believe how powerful that Scar guy is." Tien proclaimed, "I mean he's using levels of the Kaio-Ken that even Goku would struggle with!"

"Hard to believe that he's Yamcha, but all the evidence points to him telling the truth." Krillin added, keeping his eye trained on the now transforming King Cold.

"We can't trust him yet, even if he is helping against this guy." Tien stated, his focus also firmly locked onto their newest adversary.

"Funny, you trust the Saiyan who came to Earth not two years ago bent on killing all of you humans," Vegeta chuckled, leaning back on mountainside "and yet you can't trust one of your closest friends."

Tien turned to face Vegeta and shook his head "We never trusted you or that Ginyu person, besides, we can easily defeat you if we wanted." The three eyed human smirked and turned back to the action, while a grumbling Vegeta tried to take his mind off of his current pathetic status.

* * *

After a few moments of trying to break through Cold's force field in vain, Goku flew back and observed the changes that the tyrant was going through. Scar had a different idea, however, and drew his sword from its sheath, placing it directly in front of himself. His aura turned a bright and vibrant shade of crimson, he drew his arms to the left of his body, pulling the sword behind him before he used all of his strength to charge towards Cold. The sword easily sliced its way through the mighty shield that the king had put up, but the friction was so great that Scar was already losing momentum.

A bright blast of light and power slammed against Scar, causing his body to flail in the air in a failed attempt to balance himself quickly. Everyone in the vicinity had a sincere feeling of dread that suddenly washed over them. None had been so scared in their entire lives than they were at this moment in time, and it was absolutely clear to every single person eyeing Cold's new form that this would be the end of earth itself.

Goku took note of Cold's new appearance; it seemed oddly familiar to what Frieza's third form had looked like. The Saiyan remembered all four of Frieza's forms and realized rather quickly that Cold must have merely been in his second form while fighting against him and Scar. Just as Frieza's third form had, Cold's new form had a distinct set of protruding shoulders, with spikes coming out from his elongated head. His forearms now had a blade on them that looked as if it could cut through just about anything it touched, and to top it off, his power rose to one that was even higher than Frieza's final form.

As Scar finally balanced himself in the sky, Cold chuckled in his deep, malicious voice.

"Ever since I learned that my son had been overpowered and destroyed, I had begun training so that I might use this form against whoever defeated Frieza." He looked down at the palm of his hand and clenched it tight, closing his eyes as his chuckle turned into a full laugh. "You may have stood a chance before, but this game is over my friends."

Scar raised his sword over his shoulder and swung it across his body defiantly "Like hell it is!" He shouted, his aura exploding with a power that he had been holding back. The human charged at the now transformed cold with the ferocious intensity of a wolf, taking a swing at Cold and finding that all he had hit was an afterimage. "Damn!" Scar immediately flew to the left to try and avoid Cold's surprise attack.

The king's leg swung down on nothing but air, he had missed Scar only by a few inches. Using his newfound speed, Cold jabbed his other leg as Scar, but before it could connect Goku slammed his leg straight into Cold's face.

The spiked demon's body flew only a few yards away before he was able to regain balance and charge towards Goku, meeting him in the middle as the two engaged in a close quarters brawl. Scar flew only a few meters away from the action, trying to track the movements of the two gargantuan powers to see when the right moment to strike was. All his life he had to deal with powerful opponents, but this King Cold wasn't even close to the strongest opponent he had faced. Although Scar had never personally killed any of his stronger enemies, he was always able to hold them off for a short time and run away. This time would be different, he had run away his whole life, and he had come back today to make up for all the time he had spent trying to escape danger.

Finally seeing an opportunity to jump in, Scar powered up, sheathed his sword and clenched his fists tightly. During his training on Earth he had learned to control the kaio-ken technique rather well, being able to increase the levels of intensity by sheer will, and also able to use it for long periods of time without tiring. It had saved his life more times than he could count, and by now he had learned to adapt the technique and use it to strengthen specific aspects of his abilities to a much greater level than when it would be used regularly. Now that he had seen an opening, he needed to be as quick as he possibly could to even hope to catch up with Goku and Cold, and so Scar, using a specific variant of the kaio-ken, used all of the power output that he would have gained and used it to increase his speed by nearly 100 fold.

No one observing the battle could even see Scar's movements when he took off. A lightning fast punch and landed on the king's face, and Goku disengaged his opponent trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Cold was being barraged by punches that were coming from seemingly nowhere, and he couldn't seem to do a thing about it. Punch after punch, kick after kick, Scar's body grew weary, and eventually his speed had been worn out. Panting, the human backed up as quickly as he could, observing the damage he had done to his foe.

Cold flew perfectly still in the air for a moment, breathing heavily. Both his hands slowly balled into a fist and his head rose to meet Scar's gaze with one of sadistic pleasure.

"Oh shit." Scar said aloud, just before Cold rammed his knee into Scar's stomach. The human bend over in pain and coughed blood as Cold's leg dug deeper into his abdomen.

"AGH!" Cold screamed as he felt a sharp pain sear through his back. He released his knee from Scar, who daintily drifted towards the ground, writing with pain and exhaustion. Goku's arm was outstretched, his face full of confidence and contempt for this new threat to Earth. Cold immediately sprung at Goku, throwing his leg upward in an attempt to strike the Saiyan in the face. Goku dodged nimbly, but Cold quickly spun around and whipped Goku in the chest with his tail, ripping his gi and throwing him back a few feet. Not missing a single beat, Cold sped towards Goku again and attempted to ram him, missing narrowly as the Saiyan flew into the sky and showered down a massive amount of ki.

Cold simply waved his hand and every single ball of ki destructed in midair, shocking Goku so greatly that he gasped in surprised. The malicious king laughed and appeared right in front of Goku, who seemed to be too shocked to even move, and punched him straight in the gut. Goku coughed and reeled in pain, but Cold wasn't finished yet. Another swift punch was sent into the super Saiyan's stomach, causing the same reaction as before. Another punch followed soon after.

"I don't know what Frieza was so afraid of when he destroyed planet Vegeta, all of you Saiyans are pathetic!" Yet another punch was rammed into Goku, this time with enough force to bring tears to his eyes "you're nothing, and now I think it's time I-"

_***CLANG***_

Vibrations were sent through Cold's body, he turned around to see that the human had attempted to pierce his skin with his sword, and that his face was now beset with horror and dismay.

"I've been stabbed in the back more times than you can imagine, boy." Cold announced, moving quickly and grabbing Scar's head with his left hand, using an intense amount of force to attempt to crush it.

Luckily for Scar, he had also trained himself to use the kaio-ken to protect a specific body part from harm, at the cost of everything else on his body becoming quite vulnerable. As Cold attempted in vain to crush Scar's head, Goku recovered from the brutal assault he had been dealt and grabbed a tight hold of Cold's tail and yanking it. The sharp pain forced him to release Scar, and as soon as Goku saw that the man had been released, he spun Cold around in the air and threw him towards a mountainside. Not a moment had passed before Cold disappeared and reappeared behind Goku, slamming his fist into the Saiyans back. Goku vanished before Cold could land another hit, throwing a fist at thin air as Goku's leg made contact with his back. The tyrant didn't budge, he took hold of Goku's leg and threw him straight to the ground, sending a medium sized ball of dark ki at him. The Saiyan's eyes widened as he threw up his forearms in defense, landing hard on the ground as the blast rammed into his arms. Cold clenched his fist together, causing the ki attack to explode, throwing smoke into the air that obscured his view of his opponent.

Smirking, Cold rolled his neck and laughed, knowing that he had defeated his greatest adversary yet.

Scar, panting and disheartened, lowered himself to the ground and watched the smoke cloud that had covered Goku's body. After focusing his senses, he could feel that Goku had somehow survived the blast, and a new sense of hope has arisen within him.

Cold's laugh ceased as soon as he witnessed what lay beyond the cloud of smoke.

Goku was lying in a crater with his arms still up in a defensive position, shirt shredded and badly weakened, but alive. His arms flopped to the side as his hair changed back to its original black color. Cold descended to the Earth and landed in front of the crater, arms crossed in a smug fashion.

"Oh how quaint, the Saiyan survives." Cold chuckled chillingly. Goku was too weak to fight back at this point, so he merely watched as Cold humiliated him. "And don't think I've forgotten about you." The king mentioned, turning his head towards the exhausted Scar. Cold began to walk down the crater towards Goku, each step making the spectators wince.

"We've got to do something!" Krillin shouted to Tien. The three eyed man looked back towards his friend with a deep look of fear and sadness.

"Stay here, Krillin." He ordered, charging his kaio-ken and blasting off towards Cold. Vegeta only scoffed at his sheer stupidity.

Cold stopped a few feel ahead of Goku and shook his head, lifting his arm up and charging a ki attack to finish the poor man off.

Tien flew just above Cold, forming his hands into the shape of a triangle and training Cold in the middle of it. 'I might hit Goku if I'm not careful.' Tien thought to himself. As a small amount of ki was beginning to form for his attack, he hesitated and lost control of his attack. Through the triangle he had made he saw something he never expected to be happy about.

Piccolo materialized right in front of Cold with no warning at all and blasted him in the face with a brutal kick to the chin, sending him flying up into the sky. The Namekian quickly followed and threw his hands up, locking them together and slamming his combined fists into Cold's back, causing his body to fly diagonally towards the ground. Piccolo threw his right hand to his forehead, index and middle finger firmly placed just in front of his face. He instantly appeared in front of Cold's flailing body, punting him into the sky and using his technique to move instantly once more.

The demon king rammed his knee into Cold's stomach as he appeared in front of him, stopping his movements and instantly transmitting back down to the ground. Everyone was in awe of Piccolo at this point, even Vegeta was slack jawed at what he had just seen. As Cold recovered from the assault, he breathed heavily and looked towards the perpetrator with a steely, angered gaze.

"You… you're the one who killed my son!" Cold shouted down towards Piccolo, who merely smirked at the suggestion. The king looked over to where Goku had been, shocked to find that standing perfectly upright was the Saiyan who had given him so much trouble, hair back to its vibrant golden color and another Namekian standing next to him, a child as far as he could tell. "This is ridiculous!" He screamed, observing as the small Namekian child made his way over to the injured human.

King Cold smiled and laughed to himself, pointing his finger at Gon just before Piccolo transmitted straight in front of Cold and grabbed his finger, bending it so far back that it snapped and broke. Screaming in rage and pain, Cold threw his fist at Piccolo and ended up hitting air, as Piccolo was already back down on the ground before Cold could even think of touching him.

Cold slowly made his way to the ground, landing in front of the Namekian, whose face was calm and collected. The golden haired Saiyan with no shirt walked up to the right of him, and was followed by the powerful human, who took the left of the Namekian.

"This is about to get fun isn't it?" Scar said, his confidence renewed now that Piccolo had joined the fray. Piccolo's signature smirk sent a chill down Cold's spine, but the king retaliated with a chilling chuckle of his own.

"A Saiyan, a human, and a Namekian…" Cold lifted his broken finger and grabbed hold of it with his other hand, snapping the bone back into place without so much as a wince. "I'd say that this is, indeed, about to get fun!" Cold's laugh filled the empty air, his opponents would now feel the wrath of King Cold's ultimate power…

* * *

**Will Piccolo be able to turn the tide of the battle with his new technique? How deep does King Cold's power run? Find out the on the next thrilling chapter of _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Author's Note: I have created a new forum! This forum is dedicated to the creation of Dragon Ball Multiverse 2, which will be a non-linear "sequel" or spin-off from Dragon Ball Multiverse. A name for the story is still in the works, so for now we just refer to the story as DBM2. I urge you to go and check out Dragon Ball Multiverse if you haven't already, but if you have, than I also urge you to check out this forum. DBM2 will be taking some of the greatest Dragon Ball Multiverse inspired fan fictions and more (Bringer of Death, Break Through the Limit, Gohan: The Fallen Hero, Honor Trip, ect.) and putting them together in an epic story that will pin each universe against one another. If you would like to see what this is all about, simply look up Dragon Ball Multiverse 2 in the forums section of this site.**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	34. Chapter 32: The Angry Tyrant

**Chapter 32: The Angry Tyrant**

"This is intense!" Krillin quietly shouted. Both Vegeta and Trokar stayed silent, watching Cold intently to see what he was planning. "Is he gonna transform again or what?" The three fighters observed the standoff from afar, listening to the deathly silent surroundings. The wind rustled and swayed Piccolo's cape, causing it to rise slightly behind him while Goku's golden hair moved with the gust.

"He's done, out of tricks to save his hide." Vegeta confidently declared, his own voice in the back of his head attempting to convince him otherwise.

High in the sky Tien kept his hands in the form of a triangle, constantly trained on Cold, in case the others might need help. He wasn't sure if it would be enough, but he knew that he had to do something if the situation became desperate. Tien thanked whatever god allowed Piccolo to have the good sense to bring Gon to the scene, as he would be an invaluable healer if the three fighting Cold could keep him safe.

Both of King Cold's eyes were firmly on Piccolo, who hadn't said a single word since he arrived.

"Tell me, Namekian, were you the one who killed my son Frieza?" The king questioned, his stance firm in case of a surprise attack. Piccolo chuckled lightly and reached him arm up, pulling off his turban and throwing it to the ground.

"I'd like to take credit for that but it wasn't entirely my doing." The demon king answered, releasing his cape and allowing it to fall to the ground. "You can thank my protégé for that." He tilted his neck sharply to the left, cracking it harshly and quickly cracked it to the other side as well.

"Protégé? I would very much like to meet this protégé you speak of." Cold claimed, looking at the other fighters faces briefly to assess whether or not they would attack soon.

"That's too bad, he's dead right now." Piccolo shot back, bending slightly and putting both of his arms out to the side, clenching his fists and powering himself up. The two other warriors next to him exchanged concerned glances before they both flew a few feet away from the Namekian, giving him room to exude his power. King Cold laughed menacingly as Piccolo's aura exploded, creating a crater below that gradually became larger as he strengthened himself.

"How cute, the Namekian is powering up!" The king threw his arm back and quickly threw it forward, palm outstretched, blasting a huge amount of ki towards Piccolo.

The beam sliced right through the air, and Piccolo was nowhere to be seen. Gasping in fear, Cold immediately searched for where he could have vanished to before finally finding him straight above in the sky, grinning down on him. With an intense growl, Cold shot himself towards his opponent and threw a few ki attacks straight up as well. Piccolo vanished again, and Cold stopped midair to search for the Namekian again.

"This is utterly ridiculous!" Cold shouted out "fight like you have a spine!"

"Funny you should say that."

Cold's eyes shot open as Piccolo rammed his fist into the frost demon's back. Cold threw his arm behind him and managed to catch the offender by surprise, delivering a blow to his right cheek. Piccolo flew back a few feet but regained his balance quickly, staring at Cold intently. The king straightened out his back and turned to his newest opponent, shooting him a sadistic smile.

"I like your style, Namekian." Cold admitted, looking down towards the two other fighters that were merely observing the fight. "Perhaps I could find a use for you now that I need someone to take control of Frieza's duties."

"You people do that a lot." Piccolo said, shaking his head in disagreement "I don't suppose you'll ever find out that I don't want anything to do with your foolish empire." The Namekian looked around at the landscape, completely taking his attention away from his enemy. The sudden lack of focus caused the King to cautiously look towards the area that he believed Piccolo was looking towards. "This planet is mine, I came back for it so that I could enslave these pathetic humans and force them to work under me." Cold looked back towards Piccolo, more intrigued now than ever.

"You and I have much in common, it seems." Piccolo smirked at this comment and closed his eyes. "I am interested only in the finest of life's ultimate luxuries, and I have the power to ensure that any enemy who dare opposes me is crushed beneath my heel. Don't tell me that you would not relish a chance to work under me- no, beside me, as an equal!"

"So I kill your son, and you offer me a full time job?" Piccolo sarcastically remarked, laughing quietly to himself "Like father life son I suppose…"

"Frieza was a nuisance, he always envied my throne." Cold explained, clenching his right fist and raising it in frustration "At every turn he would question me, he would have rebelled had it not been for his brother." Piccolo, Goku and Scar all raised their brow in curiosity at the mention of a third member of the Cold family.

"A brother?" Goku said aloud to himself.

"You, on the other hand, would make an excellent ruler of the galaxy, I can already tell." The King extended his hand, waiting for Piccolo to do the same.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not interested in your offer." Piccolo grinned and eyed Cold with a deathly stare "My favorite hobby is torturing human's, I've grown so fond of it that I don't think I'll ever need another job." Cold withdrew his hand and growled softly to himself.

"So be it, you have sealed your fate Namekian." King Cold thrust himself towards Piccolo, who vanished using his new technique. "You coward! You refuse my offer and you run away from a fight!" Cold whipped around quickly and threw a random ki attack at the sky, hoping that he would hit Piccolo by surprise, but he found that the Namekian was nowhere in sight. After a few moments of searching in vain for the green alien, the tyrant turned his attention back towards his two original foes. "If I can't find him, I'll just have to crush you two and bring him out!" Goku's aura erupted as Cold made his way towards the two fighters. The golden Saiyan rushed at his opponent and threw a wild punch that Cold easily dodged. King Cold grabbed onto the Saiyan's wrist and pulled him towards his own body, ramming a knee into Goku's side that charged the golden haired warrior's body full of intense feelings of pain.

Scar rose up from behind Cold and used the momentum he had gained from his flight to throw a powerful kick at the tyrant's back, causing him to fly forward a few feet before he threw Goku towards Scar, the former plowing into the human with such intensity that they both began to fall towards the ground.

Cold took advantage of the situation and flew towards the two at an intense speed, clashing his fists on Goku's stomach and using his speed to accelerate the two towards the Earth. Unable to move, Scar's back rammed into the ground, creating a huge crater as rocks flew up into the air. King Cold released his fists from Goku's chest and flew up into the air out of the crater, landing in front of it and looking down at the two badly damaged fighters.

"This is all you can muster? Surely there's someone on this planet stronger than these two fools and that cowardly Namekian!" An intense blast hit Cold in the back, sending him to his hands and knees. Loosing a howl of pain from his lips, he turned to find a three eyed man holding his hands in the shape of a triangle in the air, panting and looking straight at Cold.

"Tri beam!" He shouted, releasing an intensely powerful ki attack at the evil tyrant, who rolled out of the way and threw himself up into the air. The look of fear upon Tien's face was utterly priceless to Cold, who relished every moment of his ascension towards the three eyed man.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a circular disk heading towards him, using his surprisingly nimble reflexes, Cold bent his upper body and watched as the attack soared past him, slicing through a mountain as it went along. Krillin could be seen with a determined look on his face, his hand outstretched and panting heavily.

The tyrant's mind raced at the thought of the disk slicing through him, but then someone gained his attention. He looked directly at Vegeta, whose eyes shot open as Cold looked over him.

"Vegeta?" Cold wondered to himself, unaware that Tien had just attempted to kick him in the back. "What the hell is this?" Snapping back into reality, the King grabbed onto one of Tien's arms, squeezing it so hard that it snapped.

The three eyed human screamed out in pain as he slowly drifted towards the ground.

In an instant, Cold managed to appear right in front of Vegeta, arms crossed and his expression chilling as ice. Krillin turned around quickly and screamed out in surprise, falling over backwards and dragging himself away from the tyrant.

Vegeta instantly bowed before Cold, hoping that he could forgive him and show mercy.

"Get up you ingrate." Cold ordered, ramming his foot into Vegeta's face. The Saiyan prince flew up into the air, his nose had been broken and was bleeding rather profusely. Landing with a hard 'thud' noise, Vegeta mumbled in pain, dragging himself from the ground with his arms, looking up at Frieza's father and spitting on the foot that had kicked him. "I never understood why Frieza kept you around, Vegeta, you were a horrible subordinate." Cold knelt to the ground, lowering himself so that he could look Vegeta in the eye. Grabbing the Saiyan by his hair, Cold lifted Vegeta so that his face was now even with the tyrants, who smirked in his own smug way.

Krillin lifted himself in the air and started to fly away, but Cold threw his free arm back and released a ki attack straight at the bald man.

"Not this again!" Krillin shouted, clenching his eyes shut and waiting for the attack.

Nothing.

He opened his eyes and looked into the sky to see that another ki attack had intercepted the King's.

Goku flew up between Krillin and Cold, his eyes full of fury and hatred.

"Get away from Vegeta" Goku ordered "Now!"

Cold chuckled in his deep, frightening voice. "As you wish, my dear Saiyan." King Cold threw Vegeta into the sky and bent his arm back, charging a concentrated ball of ki and tossing it up towards Vegeta. In a rare moment of blind rage, Goku launched himself at Cold and pummeled him with a powerful punch, sending him to the ground as Goku continued his assault, not allowing Cold to get up or retaliate in any way.

Vegeta, barely conscious, placed his arm out in front of him, using all the energy he had left to put into a desperate ki attack.

Arms wrapped around the prince as his mind began to slip.

Scar rolled in the air with the Saiyan in his arms, narrowly dodging the ki blast. Panting, Scar began wondering what the hell he had just done, risking his life for someone he didn't even like. Disgusted with himself, he tossed the unconscious Vegeta to the side, watching as he hit the ground hard.

Coming out of his fit of anger, Goku flew back, landing on the ground a few meters away from Cold. The tyrant rose and sighed, turning to face the Saiyan.

"You're pathetic, not even at your best could you harm me." Cold boasted, rushing at Goku and ramming his fist into the super Saiyan's abdomen. Goku flew back, his body skidding across the wasteland as Cold followed him closely.

With his intensified speed, Scar was able to catch up to Cold and ram into him using his shoulder, knocking the King off balance and giving time for Goku to recover.

Cold rolled to the side, stopping himself by digging his hand into the dirt. Scar attempted to punch the tyrant, but failed miserably as Cold grabbed onto Scar's fist and stopped his attack.

"I've had enough of you, human!" Cold shouted.

Without a single word, Scar threw out his other hand and blasted Cold's face with an energy attack. Cold remained still, taking the blast without so much as a single movement.

As the attack subsided, Scar gasped in shock to find that not only was Cold undamaged, but he was smirking.

Elsewhere, Vegeta's eyes shot open. Standing above him was the Namekian he knew as Gon, who had just finished using his powers to heal him. Raising himself by his haunches, Vegeta took a moment to regain his composure.

'How pathetic have I become…' he told himself, raising to his feet 'Me, the prince of all Saiyans!' angrily, the Saiyan balled his hand into a fist and growled 'I will not be thrown away like some kind of low class scum! I might not be the super Saiyan of legend, but I am the Prince, and I will annihilate anyone who opposes me!' Vegeta's aura exploded in an instant, alerting many of the fighters who had not expected the Saiyan to have grown so strong.

Leaving Gon in the dust without so much as a thank you, Vegeta rushed towards Cold, rising high into the air and placing his arms behind himself.

"I hope you're ready you pompous buffoon!" Vegeta shouted, alerting the King. Cold took his eye off of Scar and found himself genuinely surprised at Vegeta's resilience.

"No, Vegeta, if you miss, you'll hit Scar!" Krillin shouted, hoping that Vegeta would have some decency from his time on Earth.

"Galic Gun!" Vegeta shouted, not heeding Krillin's words at all. Cold tightened his grip on Scar's wrist, causing the human to scream in pain.

"Pathetic." Cold threw Scar directly towards Vegeta's attack.

Having sat on the sidelines the entire fight, Trokar rushed into action, throwing a weak ball of ki at Scar's trajectory, knocking him out of the way of Vegeta's attack. Cold's eyes shot open as Vegeta's Galic Gun bared down on him quickly, his plan having been unexpectedly altered by the Saibamen that he had not paid attention to at all. The king threw up his forearms and took the attack head on, strongly resisting it and only being pushed back slightly.

Vegeta pushed more of his power into the attack, hoping that he could prove to himself that he was not as useless as he previously thought.

To his great surprise, Vegeta heard Cold laughing.

"This is your ultimate attack? How pathetic!" the tyrant threw both his arms to the side, allowing the blast to hit him straight in the chest.

Taken aback, the prince decided that it was now or never and released all of his remaining power into his attack. He tired quickly, however, and it was clear that even though he was using all of his power, Cold was unfazed by the attack. Losing his will to attack further, Vegeta let go of his energy attack and fell to the ground, only holding himself up by his hands and knees.

As the attack ceased, Cold brushed off his chest and chuckled.

"All bark and no bite, just as Frieza said." Cold turned to find that Goku was returning for another surprise assault.

Cold swiftly rotated his body and slammed his tail against Goku's face, fully turning his body and grabbing onto Goku's leg before he could saunter off. Throwing him up into the air, Cold charged up and grabbed Goku by the neck, prompting the golden haired Saiyan to latch his hands onto Cold's arm.

"Where is your Namekian friend now?" Cold taunted, ramming his free fist into Goku's rib cage.

Although he took the attack rather well, Goku could tell that the tyrant had shattered a few of his bones. This had been the worst pain he had felt since he had tried to use the Kaio-ken times five against Vegeta, which had nearly torn his body to shreds.

Cold then slapped Goku across the face so hard that the Saiyan's cheek bone nearly broke. Letting loose a shout of agony, Goku was finally showing signs that he couldn't take any more of a beating.

"Tri beam!"

Cold was hit once more with a very familiar attack, his back arched in pain and he let go of Goku, turning towards Tien.

He charged quickly and slammed his fist into Tien's face, grabbing the man's shoulder and crushing down on it so hard that it shattered.

Tien screamed in agony and threw a fist at Cold, who dodged it easily.

The tyrant took a hold of Tien's face, and began to crush it slowly, muffling his shouts of pain.

"Get away from him!" Scar screamed, plowing his interlocked fists onto the top of Cold's exposed head. Tien was released from his grip and he was sent flying down towards the Earth, stopping just before he hit the ground. He looked up to find that Scar was just above him, sword drawn, arms and legs behind his body to give him momentum and about to take a brutal swipe.

Unable to follow Cold's moves, the king flew up and punched Future Yamcha in the gut, causing him to cough blood and drop his sword. With a satisfying grunt, Cold threw Scar a few meters away from himself and surveyed the area.

"They're all defeated, Namekian!" Cold shouted, looking around at all of the fighters he had thoroughly defeated. He walked up to Goku, who had been writhing on the ground, placing his foot on the Saiyan's head. "They don't have to die!" He explained, baring his foot down on golden haired Saiyan's face, causing him to scream out in pain. "Come get me, Piccolo, you're no match fo-"

A gruesome sound could be heard from Cold's abdomen, he looked down to see that a bright yellow disk, similar to the one he had dodged earlier, was cutting right through him.

In merely a second, Cold was cleaved in two from the chest up, losing both of his arms as the disk cut through.

His bottom half went limp, falling next to Goku.

Cold's other half fell to the ground as well. A pool of alien covered blood surrounded him as he breathed heavily; attempting to hold onto whatever life he had left.

Every single person who was still conscious was utterly awe struck.

"K-krillin?" Tien asked, still holding onto his shoulder in pain while looking for the one who had cut Cold in two.

Goku opened his eyes and lifted himself by his hands, looking for his friend.

"No, not Krillin…" Scar said, wiping blood from his mouth as he rose to his feet.

"Oh no… oh shit!" Tien shouted upon noticing that Piccolo was standing far away in a clearing, hand outstretched with a smug look on his face. "You can't be serious!" Lifting his hand to his forehead, Piccolo teleported right in front of Cold, or rather what was left of him.

Piccolo bent down and grabbed onto his head, lifting him up.

"Ignorant, you underestimated me." Cold barely responded, the rest of his body seemed to have shut down to give him more time to survive, but it was clear that he would be dying soon. "I had much higher hopes for you, it seems as if no one in the universe can defeat me now." Tilting his head, Piccolo thought of a grisly way he could deal with this enemy. Using his thumb and index finger he opened Cold's eyelid and jammed his thumbnail straight into the socket. Cold screamed out in pain as Piccolo pulled the eyeball out, blood gushed out of the wound onto Piccolo's face, but he didn't seem to mind.

"That's enough… Piccolo…" Goku said, rising to his feet.

Piccolo dropped Cold almost immediately. "That sounded like an order." The Namekian turned his head to face Goku "I take orders from no one." Piccolo vanished before everyone's eyes and reappeared instantly, ramming his fist into Goku's stomach. Goku reeled in pain, falling to his knees and losing his golden hair. Piccolo knelt down and shook his head in disappointment.

"I should kill you now, Goku" Piccolo said, rubbing Cold's dethatched eye on Goku's cheek "But I'm feeling generous, I'd much rather let Gohan have the honors." The Namekian chuckled and rose back up. "I enjoyed watching you pathetic idiots take a beating, but now I have someone to meet, and a wish to make." He lifted his fingers to his forehead. "I have a lot to do today, meet me at the lookout when you think you're ready." And with that, he vanished, leaving the others with an intense feeling of dread.

* * *

**What does Piccolo intend to do at the lookout? Will Scar finally reveal why he has returned to the past? How will Goku deal with his arch nemesis when they next meet? Find out next time on**_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	35. Chapter 33: A Warning From the Future

**Chapter 33: A Warning From the Future**

Goku rose back to his feet, looking over to find that Gon had already rushed over to him and began the healing process. As the Namekian's healing powers rushed over him, Goku felt relieved and energized, about ready to pounce and fly to the outlook when the others landed around him.

"What the hell just happened?!" Vegeta shouted, looking towards Scar who seemed the most calm out of everyone in the vicinity. Krillin landed next to Vegeta with a look of both surprise and frustration.

"Was that my disk he used, or did he make that himself?" Krillin wondered aloud, fists clenched. Scar shook his head and walked over to where the remaining parts of Cold's body were, kneeling down and sighing.

"I'll answer your questions, but right now this man is suffering." Scar explained, drawing his sword from its sheath. Cold didn't as much as look in Scar's direction, he was obviously in intense pain and suffering. "You were a worthy opponent." He said, plunging his sword into Cold's cranial region, finally killing him and ending his misery. Scar placed his foot on Cold's torso and pulled his sword out of the king's head, taking off his belt and wiping the blood from his blade.

Goku decided to stay with Scar for the moment to hear what he had to say, and turned to Gon when he had finally finished healing him.

"Thanks Gon, you saved my life." The Saiyan said, patting the child on the head. Gon smiled and shook his head.

"I am not the one to thank, I should have been here the whole time, but Piccolo took me here." The Namekian claimed, looking to the ground and kicking the dirt under his foot.

"Don't worry Gon, I never wanted you to be in danger, that's why I didn't bring you." Goku explained to the Namekian, kneeling down to his level "What did Piccolo do when he came to the lookout?" Gon looked back up to the Saiyan and opened his mouth for a moment, hesitating before finally revealing what had happened.

"He came out of nowhere" Gon said, turning his head to look at the others who were paying close attention to what the Namekian was saying "He asked Kami where the Dragon Balls were, Kami refused to say" Gon swallowed hard, turning back to Goku "Then Piccolo got angry and grabbed me, teleporting us here." The golden haired Saiyan pat Gon on the head and rose up to face his fellow warriors.

"He's going to wish back Gohan, we need to move." He claimed, about to take off when Scar spoke up.

"No, not yet Goku, I need to tell you all something first." The Saiyan looked over to the human, as did the others. "Piccolo isn't just going to wish for Gohan back, he's going to fuse with Kami and become stronger than anything you can imagine." All of the people in the area grew wide eyed, some of their jaws even dropped.

"Then we need to go, now!" Goku shouted, lifting up off the ground. Scar flew directly in front of him and blocked his path.

"It's necessary." The human explained, causing great confusion among the people who knew of Piccolo's evil deeds. Goku's eyed wandered to his comrades, none of whom knew what to do in this situation. He turned back to Scar and shook his head.

"Out of my way, Yamcha, I can't let Piccolo do that!" Goku shouted, attempting to fly around him. Scar used his advanced speed to block Goku's every attempt to pass him.

"You don't even know what I've come to tell you Goku!" Scar yelled out, arms outstretched to the side "You _all _need Piccolo to be at his best, he's the only hope for when the androids arrive!" Goku and the rest of the fighters became rather curious upon Scar's admission of androids.

"What do you mean, 'androids'?" Tien asked, flying up into the sky to be on the same level as Scar. Krillin, Vegeta, Trokar and Gon did the same.

"I'll explain later, after we're on the lookout" The scarred human said "for now I need to explain something to you, all of you." Krillin looked over to Goku, and then over to Tien, attempting to figure out if they had any idea of what was going on.

"What is it?" The small man finally asked.

"Yes, out with it!" Vegeta barked, throwing his arm to the side in his impatience.

"Piccolo has been training for the past year, and I mean a lot." Scar explained, turning to face the confused warriors "He's learned new techniques, rather than focusing purely on strength."

"So that means that the disk he threw…"

"Yes Krillin, he's learned how to use that technique himself, no doubt seeing how useful it is." Scar said, sending Krillin into a nervous breakdown.

"Oh no, no, shit!" Krillin shouted, putting both of his hands on his head in anger and frustration "Last time I used that technique Piccolo sliced me in half!"

"Calm down Krillin, we won't let that happen again!" Tien tried to reassure his friend, looking back over to Scar "We should get going, he's probably already in the process of finding the Dragon Balls." Goku nodded, looking over the faces of the fighters who were in the area.

"I'm going ahead; I'll meet you all at the lookout!" The Saiyan took off, leaving the others behind in a cloud of dust. Everyone stared in amazement at Goku's speed, all but Scar who took off in an instant. Vegeta, Tien, Krillin, Trokar and Gon all took off after the Saiyan and Scar, not nearly as fast as the two, but still able to reach the lookout in a few minutes time from their location.

"Hey Tien, think you can get Yamcha and the rest of Ginyu's boys to come to the lookout?" Krillin asked the three eyed human "I have a feeling we might be getting ourselves into some kind of battle royal." Tien nodded, focusing his mind of Yamcha's specific energy.

"We'll need a lot more than just Ginyu's lackeys and that fool Yamcha." Vegeta explained, "The Namek has gotten stronger, I don't even know if Kakarot can stop him now."

"You have no room to talk," Krillin said "You bowed down to Cold like you were his henchman!" The Saiyan prince scowled at the man's observation.

"A life of servitude under Cold would have been better than death." Vegeta shouted, "Watch your back, little man, or I'll kill you just like I should have when I came to this planet!" The Saiyan chuckled to himself and grinned at Krillin's fearful expression.

'_Yamcha, can you hear me?_' Tien asked, finally able to get a hold of Yamcha through his now well trained telekinesis.

'_Tien?_' Yamcha asked, slightly confused as no one had ever communicated directly with him using telekinesis '_Yeah, I'm here at Capsule Corp. with Bulma._' Tien heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing Yamcha's voice in his head.

'_Great! Listen, we need you to gather Ginyu's men and meet us at the lookout as soon as possible, Piccolo is about to wish Gohan back._' Tien explained, looking over at Krillin and Vegeta briefly before focusing back on his telekinetic link.

'_Uh, sorry, but Jeice and the others never got back to Capsule Corp., no one even knows where they are'_ Yamcha claimed, his voice seemingly distraught '_I've been looking ever since I got back, but I think they might have taken a ship and left.'_ Tien sighed and shook his head in disappointment, but regained his composure quickly.

'_Doesn't matter, they weren't important.'_ The three eyed man said '_Get to the lookout as fast as you can, we'll meet you there._' Tien cut the telekinetic link between the two of them and focused his attention on sensing what was happening above him, as far as he could tell, Goku had already made it to the lookout…

* * *

As soon as the golden haired Saiyan approached the lookout, he noticed that Piccolo had already gathered all seven of the Dragon Balls. The dragon Shenron loomed over the lookout, and Kami was currently unconscious, along with Mr. Popo and what seemed to be the body of a dead, and horribly mangled, Saibamen. Piccolo was sitting on a nearby rock and was merely waiting for Goku's arrival.

"Don't do it Piccolo!" Goku screamed as he landed on the white, tiled floor of Kami's lookout "He's unstable, I don't know if we can stop him!" Piccolo merely chuckled, standing up from his sitting position and turning away.

"You're just afraid of what he's going to do to you, Goku." The Saiyan's aura flared up in anger, he lifted one of his arms up and pointed it towards the Namekian, charging a small ki attack.

"Don't make me kill you, Piccolo, I'll do it if I have to!" Goku shouted, his ki attack nearly complete.

"Don't make me laugh." The Namekian mocked, turning his head to face his nemesis "You think that I'm stupid enough to believe that you would kill me and forgo the only option you have to save your son? Do you think I'm an idiot Goku?" Piccolo questioned, smirking at Goku's obviously conflicted facial expression. "And besides, you couldn't kill me even if you tried."

Scar landed near Goku just a moment after their exchange "No, don't do anything stupid Goku!" He shouted, throwing his hand to the side in emphasis "We need Piccolo alive, as well as Gohan!" Goku's breathing became more and more erratic as his mind attempted to make sense of every single outcome of his actions. On one hand, he had to protect Earth at any cost, and on the other, he desperately wished to see his son returned to normal. His breathing returned to normal as soon as his decision had been made.

Eyes now calm and collected, Goku kept his arm raised at Piccolo. "No, I can't let you do this, even if it means that Gohan stays dead." Scar immediately placed himself in-between Goku and Piccolo, arms outstretched defiantly.

"Goku, if you do this, you'll have to go through me." Scar threatened, his face in a horrible scowl. Goku brushed off Scar's threat and shook his head.

"I don't care, I've made up my mind, and I can't let Piccolo destroy the planet!" Goku shouted, looking directly at Scar.

"You're letting your emotions get to you Goku, Piccolo doesn't want to destroy the planet, he wants to rule it!" The human explained, attempting to calm the super Saiyan down "You need to calm yourself; Gohan can still be a vital part of the future if you let him." Goku sighed and slowly lowered his arm, his golden aura shut completely off, and his hair changed into its normal black color. Scar eased himself slightly, nodding at Goku in approval.

A loud clapping noise startled the both of them, and they turned their heads to see that Piccolo was the culprit.

"Bravo, Goku, I didn't think you had it in you." As his hands collided to make a final clap, the corner of his mouth formed into a smug smirk "I think that it's time we brought back an old friend, wouldn't you say?" Just as Piccolo turned to face the irritated and impatient Shenron, four fighters touched down on Kami's lookout, all of them with the intention of fighting Piccolo if they had to.

"Scar, Goku, stop him!" Krillin shouted, charging a destructo disk in his hands. He ceased his attack when he saw that Goku was shaking his head in disproval. "What the hell is going on?" He asked, the others wondering exactly the same thing.

"Excellent, you're all here to witness Gohan's resurrection!" Piccolo shouted, lifting his arms up to the sky "Shenron, bring Gohan back to life, right here on the lookout!"

Shenron's eyes began to glow red, and soon thereafter, a small body of a Saiyan child was seen, unconscious on the ground for a moment. "**YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED.**" Shenron claimed, his body shooting up into the sky along with the Dragon balls, all of which shot and scattered across the world to be found once again.

Everyone but Scar and Piccolo's hearts sunk, there before them lay the child whom killed Frieza, and was quite possibly the most unstable killing machine of all time. As his eyes began to slowly flutter open, all of the fighters, Piccolo included, shot back in surprise.

"P-piccolo?" Gohan asked upon seeing his master for the first time in over a year and a half. The Namekian knelt down and nodded, smiling in a rather evil manner.

"That's right kid, you're back." Gohan raised himself up slightly using his arms, looking around at all of the familiar, and some not so familiar, faces. Trokar rushed up to the boy and smiled; finally able to see the person for whom he had trained so hard.

"Gohan!" Trokar shouted, making the boy smile as he lifted himself to his feet. The smile quickly disappeared upon seeing Goku's face, and all of the emotion that he had inside of him turned to anger and hate.

"Goku, why are you here?!" Gohan growled, causing his father to wince in sadness.

"Interesting question, Gohan." Piccolo said, looking directly at Scar. "Tell me, Yamcha, why are you here?" Everyone's attention was then drawn to the current timeline's Yamcha, who had just landed on the lookout with Bulma in his arms, immensely surprised that Gohan had already been brought back.

"Excellent question, Piccolo, one that I plan to answer now that everyone is here." Scar said, walking up next to Piccolo and crossing his arms, looking out to all of the confused faces around him. Piccolo himself merely chuckled at Scar's insolence, thinking that he could stand next the great Demon King was a mistake, but he would let it slide if he had a good reason for why he was here.

"This had better be worth my time; otherwise I'll kill you right now." Piccolo warned, turning to his pupil and giving him a threatening look "Only attack if I give the word, understood?" Gohan nodded and turned his attention to Scar, as did the rest of the group.

Scar sighed and looked at each and every one of the fighter's faces, recognizing each of them for how he used to know them, and how they all died. He didn't plan on explaining to them the exact circumstances of their deaths, but he desperately needed to explain why he had come back in the first place, and why all of them needed to get along to fight this new threat.

He took in a deep breath and heaved out a loud sigh "There's a threat that I don't think anyone here is prepared for." All of the people at the lookout exchanged concerned glances at one another, with Krillin blurting out what he had heard Scar say earlier.

"You mean the androids right?" The bald man asked. Scar nodded and was about to speak when Bulma decided to chime in.

"Like the androids that the Red Ribbon Army used to create?" She questioned, causing Scar to smile and chuckle lightly.

"Astute as ever Bulma." He complimented, turning his attention back to the group as a whole "It's just as Bulma said, Dr. Gero of the Red Ribbon Army created two androids in my timeline." Scar began to pace slowly "They showed up about 3 years from now, the time spent between those years was running from Piccolo and Gohan." The Namekian smirked upon hearing this, reveling in his own ego "However, once the androids were released, no one could stop them."

"What do you mean by that?" Krillin asked, looking around at everyone's concerned faces "Does that mean we all died?"

"Obviously not Krillin, if Scar is Yamcha from the future then someone had to have lived!" Bulma shouted back to Krillin, who nervously chuckled and apologized.

"Bulma is right, as always." Scar said, sighing and shaking his head "Although some of you did die before the androids even showed up as well."

"So who was left?" Tien asked curiously, wondering if he was able to escape the androids.

Scar looked over to Tien and shook his head "It doesn't matter, what matters is that everyone but me is dead. Everyone." All of the people on the lookout wore shocked expressions; even the usually calm and collected Piccolo had a look of concern on his face. "Piccolo was the only one able to put up a fight, but even he couldn't fight both of the androids at once, not with their unlimited stamina."

"Are you serious?" Yamcha asked, his fists clenched together "How can we fight something that never gets tired?"

Scar nodded at his past counterpart and lookup up to the blue sky, shaking his head and sighing. "I don't know, none of us ever did any serious damage." Scar looked over to Piccolo, who had a very concerned and thought filled look upon his face "I've been fighting them for seventeen years and the most damage I've been able to do is superficial scratches."

"Then how were you able to get away from them?" Bulma questioned, "If they had unlimited stamina they could have chased you forever." Scar nodded in acknowledgment of Bulma's words.

"They sense power in the same way we do, so if we mask our powers, they can't find us." 'Future' Yamcha claimed, "And along with that, I was able to modify the Kaio-Ken technique to multiply certain aspects of my powers, like my speed, strength, things like that." Those on the lookout who knew the Kaio-Ken were amazed, and every single user of the technique wished to learn this sort of mastery.

"Are you serious?!" Tien shouted, "If you teach this to people like Yamcha, Krillin and I, we could actually stand a chance!"

"There's a drawback Tien." Scar started to explain, walking over to a nearby rock and resting himself on it "If you use the Kaio-Ken to multiply only a specific aspect of your power, then the rest of your power is lowered to what it would only normally be able to do without the Kaio-Ken." He shook his head in disappointment for himself "I haven't been able to find a way to combine a multiplier of strength and speed at different levels yet."

Tien looked over at Yamcha and Krillin, then back to Scar "That doesn't matter; it would still help us tremendously." Both of the other Kaio-Ken users nodded in agreement. Scar sighed and nodded as well.

"You're right, I'll be sticking around here until the androids show up anyway, I have nothing to go back to." Scar rested his arms on his legs and lowered his head to stare at the ground. Bulma looked away for a moment before taking a step forward.

"Does that mean…?" She paused, not wanting to say what was on her mind.

"Yes, Bulma." Scar admitted, looking back up at the past incarnation of the woman he loved so much "You died not long after making the time machine." The blue haired woman let loose a single tear for the tragic warrior, who shook his head at her and lowered his head back towards the ground. "I couldn't protect her, but I came back to protect you." He said, lifting himself from the rock and looking back up to all of his old friends "For all of you."

Piccolo, who had been silent throughout Scar's explanations, thinking about the best way to go about this precarious situation, suddenly spoke up. "Interesting story, but how am I suppose to believe you?" The Namekian asked, noticing that Gon had finally arrived on the lookout with a terribly exhausted expression across his face. Scar was about to speak, but he closed his mouth and shook his head.

"No words will convince you will they Piccolo?" Scar asked, reaching into his belt and pulling out a small bag filled something yet to be seen.

"What _is_ that?" Krillin wondered aloud.

"This, Krillin, is what I've collected from the past 20 years of my friend's deaths." Scar explained, opening the small sack and digging his hand through it. "I've gone back to where each and every one of you died, and picked something up that was meaningful to you from your bodies." Everyone looked around at one another wondering what Scar would pull out first. As his hand lifted, the others could see that Scar was holding a shredded white glove, one that immediately caught the attention of a certain Saiyan.

"I-is that…?" Vegeta quietly wondered, Scar nodded and threw the glove to the Saiyan prince.

"It's yours Vegeta; you fought to the bitter end." Scar said, filling the Saiyan's heart with both pride and anger. Vegeta seemed to be speechless, so Scar began to go through the sack once more.

"Wait, tell me something." Vegeta asked, causing everyone's attention to turn to the Saiyan. "Was I ever able to attain the form that Kakarot uses?" Scar said nothing, and only shook his head. Vegeta felt despair, he shook his head and remained silently thoughtful, gripping his glove tightly as Scar began to dig out his next item. From his pouch he pulled out an orange piece of cloth with a familiar looking symbol on it, one that everyone who had worn the symbol before could easily recognize. Krillin walked forward very slowly, reaching up and pulling the cloth gently from Scar's hands.

"This is mine, isn't it?" Krillin wondered, looking over the symbol carefully. He put it over the symbol he was wearing on his chest, and the answer became obvious. "Of course it's mine…" Scar rest his hand on the bald man's shoulder, easing the freight that overtook him.

"Don't worry Krillin, this is why I've come." Scar assured his old friend, taking the cloth back and placing it in the pouch as Krillin took his place next to his fellow warriors. Scar looked up and Goku and then at Tien, placing the pouch on the rock next to him. "From both of you I took a piece of clothing." Scar lifted his leg and placed his boot down on the rock, right next to where he had placed the pouch and looked over to Goku once more."These are yours, Goku."

The Saiyan nodded and sighed "I know." Scar nodded back at his old friend and turned his attention to Tien, lowering his leg back to the ground and taking off his red belt.

"This is yours Tien, the belt you're wearing right now is one and the same with the one I'm holding." Scar said, walking slowly towards his old comrade and placing the belt in his hands. Tien looked down at his own bet and back to the one he was holding, nodding in confirmation.

"It is, I don't know what to say…" Tien sighed, placing the belt back into Scar's hands. Scar wrapped the belt around him and tied it into place, lifting the bag back up and opening it to take out one final piece that he knew would force Piccolo to believe his story.

After looking for a moment, Scar placed his fingers on the item and looked up at Piccolo. "Tell me, Piccolo, does this look familiar?" He quickly pulled out Piccolo's signature turban and threw it to the ground. The Namekian looked up at Scar and chuckled.

"I've had many of those; some have been destroyed, what makes you think that this is irrefutable evidence?" Piccolo countered, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"It's not the turban itself, look inside." Scar asked of the Namekian. Piccolo complied, kneeling down and lifting the turban off the ground. As he turned it around, his face seemed to be one of puzzlement and horror.

"These are my-"

"Teeth? Yes, razor sharp, they were the only thing I could take off your body that I could say for sure was yours." Disgusted, Piccolo threw the turban to the ground and turned his body to face Gohan.

"Come on, Gohan, were leaving." He ordered. His pupil nodded, getting ready to fly away before Scar stopped them.

"Wait! I haven't even told you the most important thing about the androids!" Scar shouted, causing both Piccolo and Gohan to turn and face Yamcha's future counterpart. "Amenbo island, three years from now, be there if you don't want this planet to be turned into a wasteland."

Piccolo chuckled "And you think that it would be much different if I were in charge?" He took off immediately, followed closely by Gohan and Trokar. Scar sighed and looked back over to his former friends; however his attention was caught by a now conscious Kami.

The old Namekian lifted himself to his feet and was greeted by Gon, who picked up Kami's staff and handed it to him.

"I've been awake this whole time, and I've heard everything." Kami explained, relying on his cane for support more than usual. "Piccolo came here and ordered me to hand the Dragon Balls to him." Kami looked over to the dead Saibamen and sighed, shaking his head in sadness and disappointment as Gon began the healing process on Mr. Popo. "This Saibamen- my friend, Gorth, attacked Piccolo when he struck me, and was killed by Piccolo shortly after." Kami returned his attention to the horrified faces of the people on the lookout. "Listen to me, my friends, my time is short."

"What?! Don't say that Kami!" Krillin shouted, causing Tien, Yamcha and Goku to nod in agreement.

"You don't understand, Krillin." Kami said, finding a nearby chair to sit on. "Piccolo has found a way to forcibly rejoin us and multiply his power."

"No, how can that be?!" Yamcha shouted, looking over to Scar. "Did you know this?" Scar nodded and looked towards the guardian of Earth.

"It's necessary, we need Piccolo to fight against the androids." Scar claimed, hoping that Kami would agree with him.

"I was thinking about having one of you end my life, but hearing Scar's words of the impending danger…" The old Namekian sighed and looked up to the sky, a single tear falling from his eye "He will be here tonight, and I don't want any of you to interfere."

"But what about Gon?" Goku asked Kami, who looked at the small Namekian next to him. Gon wore a worried and sad expression, but Kami smiled and placed a hand on his head.

"The boy is a remarkable learner, and although he still has much to learn, he is ready to take control of Shenron." Kami said, looking back towards the rest of the people. "I shall transfer ownership of the title of guardian of Earth to him after the rest of you have left, do not worry; the Dragon Balls will not be disappearing with my inevitable absorption." Gon broke down in tears and embraced Kami, who placed his arms around Gon to reassure him that everything would be alright.

Scar nodded and tucked his pouch away in his belt after acquiring all of his sentimental items, sans Vegeta's glove. "You all have a major advantage that we lacked in my timeline." Scar said, turning everyone's attention back to him "Piccolo is now going to be training to defeat the androids, so he won't be hunting you down like he did in my time. This gives you all more time to train, more time to figure out a way to stop Piccolo if he ever gets out of hand." He turned his attention to Yamcha, Krillin and Tien specifically "If the three of you truly want to train under me, I have no problem with that. Meet me at Capsule Corp. in a week from today, I still have some things to sort out before I can begin to do anything." The three humans nodded, acknowledging that they did indeed wish to be trained to further master the Kaio-Ken technique. "I imaging that all of you have some questions, I can answer some of them, but others I would like to leave alone."

"I have one." Yamcha said, crossing his arms "That sword, is that the one that I-" He stopped himself for a moment and tilted his head with a puzzled look on his face "we… used to use?" Scar nodded, sliding the sword out from its sheath and waving it around slowly for everyone to see.

"This is the sword we used to use when we were a desert bandit." 'Future' Yamcha claimed, sliding it back into its sheath "Bulma modified it to be able to withstand powerful attacks; it's saved my ass more times that I care to remember." A brief silence took over the lookout before another person took to feeding their curiosity.

"What do the androids look like?" Tien wondered, trying to visualize them in his mind.

"Excellent question. One is male with blue pants, black shirt and an orange handkerchief tied around his neck. He has medium long black hair and has a cocky attitude." Scar explained, pointing to the large scar across his eye "He gave me this little scratch, now I can't open my left eye anymore." He sighed and turned around, facing away from the crowd of people "The other is a girl, she has medium long blonde hair, wears a denim jacket with a black shirt, mini skirt and leggings." Scar turned to face the crowd, lowering the neckline on his gi to better show the scar on his chest "She might be pretty, but she's just as sadistic as her brother. This is what she did to me." He said, releasing his hand from his gi and shaking his head "I almost died from that one; we had run out of senzu beans by then."

After that, the area went silent again. No one knew exactly what to ask, but they did have many questions.

"Something I forgot to mention." Scar said, pointing his finger toward the sky "We can't sense these androids, their energy signal is untraceable."

"Untraceable?" Goku blurted out, "we've all been trained to fight using our sensing abilities; fighting using our eyes is going to be difficult to adjust to." Scar nodded at Goku's observation.

"You're right; it was difficult to adjust to for all of us, which is why we were no match for them." Scar explained, "Everyone was so focused on finding an energy signal that they completely neglected to scope out the area using sight. I've been fighting against the androids for so long that the fight with Cold was especially difficult, as I was trying to relearn how to use my sensing ability to find his ki signature."

"So what you're saying is that we should try using our eyes instead of using our senses?" Tien asked, "That's like saying that we should relearn what we had to unlearn when we started to train to become martial artists!"

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm just saying that you should rely on sight more than you do now." Scar proclaimed "Otherwise the androids will take advantage of you." The others half heartedly nodded, acknowledging Scar's advice as legitimate. Bulma seemed to be contemplating something in the background, her facial expression was one of both concern and wonder, and Scar could tell just by looking at her what her question would be. "Bulma, you're wondering if I can help you rebuild a time machine aren't you?" He asked, causing the blue haired woman to divert her attention to Scar. She nodded.

"I don't know how I did it in the future, but if I could do it then, then I know I'm capable of it now." She said, brushing her bangs back with her fingers "This could be the greatest scientific breakthrough of all time!" Scar merely shook his head from side to side.

"I have no idea how she did it, and even if I did I don't think I'd tell anyone how." Bulma's face went from one of curiosity to one of confusion and surprise.

"I… I suppose I understand why you wouldn't want to but…" Bulma shook her head and sighed "Right, I'm sorry I asked." She apologized, turning to the current Yamcha "We should be getting back to Capsule Corp., it's getting late." Yamcha nodded and looked back at his future counterpart, who merely nodded back before Yamcha sped off into the distance with Bulma.

The sun was almost ready to set, Bulma was right when she said it was getting late, and most of the people on the lookout wanted to call it a day. Tien and Krillin left the lookout soon after Yamcha, saying their farewells to Scar and Goku, hoping to see them soon. Scar reminded them to meet him at Capsule Corp. a week from the day, and they promised not to forget. After they had left, only Scar, Goku, Vegeta, Gon and Kami remained. Mr. Popo had been healed by Gon and was sent into the lookout to prepare for the ritual to transfer ownership of the Dragon Balls, and to also transfer ownership of the title "Guardian of Earth" to Gon, who was very saddened and anxious at this sudden turn of events.

Vegeta still stood in the place where he had witnessed the truth of what had happened to him in the future, his pride wouldn't allow him to accept that he had died at the hands of a machine, and yet he was still proud of himself for fighting until the end. Ever since he had arrived with Nappa on Earth about two years ago, he had been a shell of who he once was. The proud and powerful prince of all Saiyans had turned into nothing but a joke, a feeble warrior who even a lowly human could conquer, and his pride was screaming from within that he could do better. For the past year and a half he had trained by himself to attain the level of power that Goku had now, but he was nowhere near him, and after all this time he had finally figured out what held him back so long. He had to accept that he could never be the best, but he could now accept that he could be better, and he had to start by accepting help from others. He knew that Goku had trained in a gravity chamber before but he had initially refused the idea of going anywhere near Capsule Corp. because of Ginyu. Now that Ginyu was out of the picture, Vegeta thought that perhaps it was time to get a little help from the blue haired woman and her father.

He didn't like the idea of accepting help from them, but he also hated himself for his pathetic display with Cold earlier that day. Bowing down before the tyrant who birthed a son who annihilated his race, it was pathetic and he knew it. It was when he had learned of his ultimate fate did the Saiyan prince finally know that he was better than what Frieza had pegged him as all of these years. He wasn't just a lowly warrior who could be used and abused, he was a proud Saiyan Prince, and he could now take solace in the fact that even when the odds were completely against him, he didn't run, he fought and died like a true Saiyan warrior. All of these feelings coalesced inside of Vegeta rather quickly, filling him with an intense feeling of hope that he had never felt before. He truly wanted to surpass everyone on this planet; Kakarot, Piccolo, Gohan, everyone would bow to him before this was all over, and he would prove to them his superiority by being who he was suppose to be all along, a super Saiyan.

He hadn't wanted to admit it, but the legends of super Saiyans that he had heard seemed to be shattered when Goku had transformed into the golden state he used to fight against Cold, and now that there were two people who could use the form, he knew that he could somehow access it if he tried hard enough. Once he would be able to transform into the form that he had seen Goku use, he knew that no mere machine could overcome the sheer power and strategy that Vegeta would come up with. As Goku and Scar were exchanging some words about what happened in his future, Vegeta decided that he had better get started on his plans as soon as possible.

"You, the one from the future" Vegeta said, pointing towards Scar. The human turned his attention away from Goku and turned to the Saiyan prince, who smirked back at Scar "I really must thank you, before you came along I felt pathetically weak. I now have purpose." He lowered his arm and turned his head to look at Goku, who stared back at his fellow Saiyan "Watch out Kakarot, once I am able to become a super Saiyan, I'll defeat you just like I had two years ago." Vegeta's aura flared up, he smirked back at the two of them once more before placing his torn glove in his pocket, blasting off to the Capsule Corp. building.

Scar nodded and turned his attention towards Goku once more. He sighed and shook his head "There are a lot of things better left unsaid Goku, but I think you deserve to hear some of those things." Scar turned to look at Kami and Gon before turning back to Goku "Promise me that you won't tell anyone the things that I'm about to tell you, especially Yamcha and Bulma." The Saiyan turned his head to look at Kami and Gon as well, both of whom were discussing something pertaining to being the guardian of Earth. He nodded and turned his head back towards Scar.

"I want to know everything, everything that you can tell me." Goku requested "If any of it can help against these androids, then I want to hear it." Scar nodded and sat down on a nearby rock.

"It's not just to help against the androids, Goku." Scar said, letting out a troubled sigh "I needed to tell someone about this, otherwise it would kill me… I'll start at the beginning, right after the Piccolo came and killed Cold." Scar cleared his throat and looked up at Goku's face "But before I do that, I need to tell you something."

Goku said nothing, and prepared to listen to Scar's tale.

"I had a son, Goku." A tear formed in the corner of Scar's eye as he attempted to tell his old friend of his former offspring. Goku's mouth slowly creaked open; by his facial expression Scar could tell that he was both confused and saddened at the same time. Scar lowered his head, shaking it from side to side as a tear drop fell from his face to the tile floor of Kami's lookout. "He died when he was thirteen…"

* * *

**Next chapter – The History of Yamcha! The tale of Scar will be told, what happened to the Z fighters after Piccolo defeated Cold? How was Scar able to escape from both the androids **_**and**_** Piccolo for 20 years? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	36. The History of Yamcha: Part One

**The History of Yamcha: Part One**

**WARNING: These chapters deals with very sensitive subjects. Part one will be rated T, while part two shall be rated M.**

A chilling wind brushed past all of those on the Lookout, Goku stared intently at Piccolo and Gohan as the others looked on in both horror and anticipation. From the previous fight, everyone already knew that Goku and Piccolo were tired, but Gohan had just been brought back from the dead, and no one doubted that Piccolo had filled his head with lies of how his father had chosen not to revive him. The child's facial expression told everyone that he wasn't about to let Goku leave the Lookout alive. Even though Goku's allies were all there, they were tired and bloodied from fighting the Ginyu Force, as well as trying to fend off Cold while Goku recovered, and they knew that once the fighting had begun, Goku would be on his own.

Vegeta had followed the others to the lookout, but instead of being met with criticism as he had been in the original timeline, he was met with praise. When Ginyu and his men began to attack the humans, it was Vegeta who retaliated the most quickly, taking Ginyu head on and fighting admirably. He himself knew that the only reason he had done so was because the purple alien had always been a thorn in his side while he was on Earth, but also because with Ginyu out of the way, Cold wouldn't be able to destroy the planet so easily. Despite everything he had told himself, Vegeta knew Cold would never accept Vegeta back into the ranks of his soldiers, so it was best to even the playing field rather than submit and be killed.

It didn't matter; he had done something heroic, which was more than anyone could have thought before Ginyu annihilated Chiaotzu with a single blast. Tien was the most grateful, but he wished he would have been able to have delivered the finishing blow to the bastard Ginyu.

Still, Vegeta was out of breath, bloodied and just as tired as the rest of them. No Senzu beans were ready, and in order for them to be on any use they knew that they would either have to combine their strengths or run away and regain their power.

Goku had already made their decision for them, and already knew how this would play out.

He turned to his friends after he had exchanged sympathetic words with his son, words that he knew fell on deaf ears. He smiled, the famous grin that would always give his friends hope, but now it seemed to serve as a grim admittance of defeat.

"This is my battle." He explained, still with a smile on his face "None of you have to be here, run." No one moved a muscle, none of them were cowardly enough to take Goku's words immediately, and all of them were willing to fight Piccolo rather than watch Goku die.

"That's not true! This is everyone's fight!" Krillin shouted over to his best friend, looking slightly over to find that Piccolo was grinning "Don't tell us to leave Goku, don't!" He shouted, a tear forming in the corner of his eye. Everyone had already adopted a fighting stance, but Goku shook his head and clenched his fists, his aura turning golden, as did his hair in a fiery explosion ok ki.

"I know none of you want to go, but it's useless to stay here. None of you can help me." Goku claimed, his voice more gruff and forceful. None of them moved an inch, causing Goku to clench his teeth in anger and sadness "I said run you fools!" He screamed, causing his friends to back away in fear. Krillin took one last look at his friend and nodded, blasting off. Yamcha took off right after Yamcha, and Tien grabbed Gon before heading away with Vegeta.

* * *

"That was the last time I saw you, Goku." Scar sighed, wiping a tear from his cheek "your smile was the thing that always stuck with me, that you would try to instill us with hope, even after we knew there was none." Goku shuddered, knowing that the implication was strong that Gohan had actually killed him in Scar's timeline.

"I'm sorry, Yamcha…" The Saiyan consoled, placing his hand on the man's shoulder. Scar accepted the gesture and nodded.

"Your death was only the start." Scar said, lifting himself up from the rock, brushing Goku's hand off of his shoulder as he began pacing.

* * *

They found a spot to hide as quickly as they could, using their senses to pick up the fight that ensued. Goku and Gohan were truly going at it, but none of them could tell. They had all suppressed their power so that if Goku died, Piccolo would not be able to find them and kill them. Hours passed, and none of them knew exactly who was winning. Their ki seemed so similar, and yet one of the signatures was waning, the other clearly winning the battle. Blasts of ki were heard throughout the fight, lighting up the night sky with their colorful splendor, but soon, all ki attacks stopped. One of the energy signatures was very weak, and some of the weaker fighters couldn't sense it at all anymore.

"Goku, he isn't…" Tien clenched his fists and started to move, but Yamcha caught his shoulder and shook his head in despair.

"We're no match…" They all felt the same way, even Vegeta, who was silently contemplating what the future would have in store for him with Kakarot having been killed by his own little brat. He felt a tinge of pain, maybe even sadness at the thought of the death of another pure Saiyan, but ultimately he knew that without Kakarot in his way, perhaps he could establish himself as the strongest once again.

They all felt at once as the ki signature went out, Krillin dropped to his knees and began to cry.

"Why, Goku!" He shouted, staring up into the dark sky "Why couldn't you just let me die fighting by your side!" Yamcha, Tien and Vegeta all looked at the small warrior in pity, with the two humans and Gon, the Namekian, also shedding a tear for their fallen comrade.

Mere minutes after the energy signal disappeared, a huge spike of energy could be felt from the lookout. An energy unlike any they had sensed before had emerged, and they were absolutely terrified of it. As soon as it had appeared, however, it dropped, and they could all tell that it was Piccolo's doing.

A few more hours passed in total silence before they couldn't feel Piccolo or Gohan's energies any longer, and Tien thought it best if they were to go into hiding. Vegeta, Yamcha and Krillin all agreed that in order to have any chance against Piccolo and Gohan they would all need to stick together and hide somewhere that he would never think so look. Gon was passed out at that point, and was being carried by Tien, who, still saddened by the loss of his friend Chiaotzu, decided to take it upon himself to watch over the small Namekian child.

Krillin, Tien and Vegeta went off to Capsule Corp. to find Bulma, knowing that she wasn't safe as long as she was living in her home. Yamcha volunteered to stay behind and check the lookout to see if it truly was Goku that had died, taking a few minutes to get the courage to fly back up.

Taking his time, Yamcha slowly flew up to the once sacred meeting place, looking around to find that everything was completely trashed. The white tiles were stained with blood, the garden destroyed, the house in shambles. He could make out three bodies: the Saibamen "Gorth", Mr. Popo and one other that brought him to his knees.

The orange gi was a dead giveaway, and Yamcha's worst fears were realized.

Not only had they killed him, they took his head.

Where Goku's body lay, only a bloodied stump could be seen where his head had been. Yamcha fell to the palms of his hands, eyes wide open as he hurled onto the ground. It took almost a half hour for Yamcha to gain the strength of will to get up again, and as he rose his legs shook in nausea and fear. He wobbled over to Goku's corpse, avoiding looking at the Saiyan's decapitated stump, kneeling down to the lower half of his body and looking at his shoes.

"You were a great…" Yamcha stopped himself and wiped the tears from his face, "Great friend Goku, I won't ever forget you." He gulped hard and he slid off the Saiyan's weighted shoes, tying them together and strapping them onto his own belt. "You l-loved these shoes, Goku…" Yamcha stuttered out, turning away from his dead body "I'll wear them proudly." He said, wiping off even more tears as he flew off into the distance.

* * *

Goku stayed silently still, breathing heavier now than he had before.

"That was when I started." Scar said, looking up at the starry night sky. "Twenty years ago, that's when I knew I couldn't sit around like I always did." He looked back to the tile flooring, shaking his head "You gave me the strength I needed to push myself, Goku." The Saiyan looked over the side of the lookout, peering over at the forest below.

"What happened to Chi-Chi?" He asked solemnly, not truly wanting to know the answer, but still forcing himself to ask.

Scar sighed, turning around to look at Goku briefly before turning to face the sky again. "She killed herself."He said, placing his right hand on the top of his head, shaking it from side to side "she couldn't stand losing you again."

Goku shed a tear and closed his eyes, regretting that any incarnation of him would have thrown his life away because of his shame.

* * *

Tien, Krillin, Yamcha and Vegeta met back up at Capsule Corp. along with Bulma and Gon, who lay fast asleep on the blue haired women's bed as she packed her items.

"Bulma, please, only take what you need" Yamcha pleaded, prompting a death glare from a crying Bulma. After they had broken the news to her, she nearly lost it, but Yamcha had straightened her out for the most part. Her facial expression quickly turned to a more saddened one, and she rushed into Yamcha's arms.

"I'm sorry, Yamcha, I just never…" She gripped the back of his clothing tightly, crying into his shoulder.

"No one did, woman." Vegeta coldly exclaimed, looking out a window with his arms crossed. "Now hurry up, no doubt the Namekian already knows we would come here first." The last full blooded Saiyan ordered.

"Why are you even here?" Krillin asked, sitting at the foot of Bulma's bed, staring at the wall. "You don't care about us, you don't care about Goku." His eyes were trained firmly at the middle of the wall. Tears wouldn't come anymore; he wore a cold, determined facial expression.

Vegeta scoffed and turned to face the small warrior "Kakarot may not have been my friend, but he was a kinsman, and he fought to the end." He explained, walking closer to Krillin, who continued staring at the wall "Sticking with you fools is the only way that I'll be able to survive. I won't have Kakarot's sacrifice be in vain."

Krillin's nose crinkled up in anger "So this is all about you huh?" He asked, turning his attention to the Saiyan "Goku died so you could live?!" Krillin rose from the bed, causing Vegeta to smirk "you self centered prick!"

"Do you want to die baldy?" Vegeta threatened, but was met with a firm hand on his shoulder. He looked back to find Tien eyeing him with malice, but also with a stare that reminded him what was at stake.

"Not now, either of you." Tien ordered, releasing Vegeta's shoulder. "If we get riled up now, Piccolo will know exactly where we are."

"Hmph." Vegeta scoffed, turning back to look out the window "like he doesn't already know."

Bulma threw a few more things in her pack, and Yamcha looked around to see if they needed anyone else to come with them.

"Is there someone here who we should take?" The former bandit asked, eyeing Tien to see if he knew anything Yamcha didn't.

"There's Chi-Chi and Roshi, but if we know that old Hermit, he's probably somewhere in a submarine by now, and Chi-Chi wouldn't come with us anyway." Tien explained. Yamcha nodded and gasped, he had one last idea.

"What about Korin?" He said, causing Krillin to look up in surprise.

"We should get as many Senzu's as possible." The bald man said, looking down at Yamcha's belt and finding that he had Goku's shoes. "Wait, are those…"

"Yes, they are." Yamcha turned his belt slightly so that the boots were out of Krillin's eyesight. The small fighter looked up at Yamcha and was about the speak when Tien gasped in terror.

"He's here!" Tien quietly stated, frightening everyone in the room. He felt a sudden surge of energy just outside the building, just as he had felt when Piccolo had first arrived on Earth via instant transmission.

"Oh shit!" Krillin whispered, grabbing Gon. "How are we going to get out of here?" Bulma rushed to a window and quickly but quietly lifted it open.

"Be as quiet as possible, and don't raise your powers for a second." Tien ordered, ushering Yamcha and Bulma out first, followed by Krillin and Gon, and finally Vegeta. They all flew somewhat slowly, not trying to gain attention to themselves, but also going fast enough so that they could get out of Piccolo's range of sensing as quickly as possible.

A few minutes into the flight, Bulma had a realization and began breathing heavily.

"My parents!" She quietly shouted "and Lod! He's going to kill them!" She squirmed in Yamcha's hands, but he kept his firm grip on her. "Go back Yamcha, we have to save them!" Despite her plea, Yamcha's eyes were fixed ahead, not wavering even for a second. He gulped; she saw the fear in his eye, the sadness. He knew they were already gone, and now, so did Bulma. She looked down to the ground and began to cry, and just a few short minutes later, the six of them heard a massive explosion.

* * *

"I thought she was done." Scar said, shaking his head and looking over to Goku, who had been sitting on the rock for some time. "The look in her eyes told me that she didn't want to go on anymore." He smiled briefly, but it turned back into a saddened frown as he spoke "I was wrong, she just needed time." 'Future' Yamcha looked over at Kami's house, having heard some loud noises going on the inside. Both he and Goku knew that it was the ceremony, although neither of them truly knew what was going on.

"Did Piccolo find you?" Goku asked out of curiosity, staring at the back of Scar's head.

He stood still and said nary a word for a moment or two, seemingly trying to remember what happened.

"Yes. Once." Scar explained.

* * *

It only took a few days to find a good hiding spot. Bulma had brought plenty of capsules with equipment to survive. Vegeta, Tien, Krillin and Yamcha went on regular hunting trips to get food, usually gathering enough in one hunt to last for a long while. They lived this way for a year, fending from the land and trying to keep quiet so that Piccolo wouldn't be able to find them. They trained themselves day and night, trying as hard as they could not to raise their powers, but finding other avenues to be able to fight Piccolo on a more even level. Tien, Yamcha and Krillin all attempted to last longer in a Kaio-Ken state in order to prolong the forms use in a fight, while Vegeta attempted tried his hardest to maintain his temper and not feed his frustration at not being able to unleash his full power, he was having the hardest time, as he had not yet attained the form he had seen Gohan and Goku using before.

During the course of the year, Bulma had returned to her old self for the most part, building contraptions and trying to find a way for the men to train without Piccolo catching on. She often spoke with Gon about how he missed his people, and what he would do before Frieza had come to his planet. She really liked him, and he was beginning to feel like he had some kind of family again with the people around him. Gon often tried to hone his healing skills, testing it on injured animals he found in the wild, and sometimes on the humans when they tried lasting longer than they should have in the Kaio-Ken state. The Namekian really looked up to Tien after Goku's death, as he seemed to be the leader of the group at the time. Tien would lead the humans in their daily meditations, and would more often than not exceed the others in his abilities. Vegeta seemed to be annoyed at the fact that he had little he could do, as the humans couldn't teach the Kaio-Ken, only a Kai could.

After a while, Vegeta became fed up with the way that he was living and wanted to leave the main group. He argued that he had no place with these humans unless he could hone his fighting abilities, and that without proper training he would lose power. In order to keep him around, Bulma promised him that she would have her invention that cloaks Ki signatures built within a month. Vegeta reluctantly agreed, grumbling the entire time.

As promised, Bulma finished the device, which was a chip that could attach to a fighters skin and create an invisible bubble around them that captured the excess Ki being given off and keep it contained. However, she warned that without a proper test, she had no idea if the invention could work properly, and so she decided to withhold it from Vegeta until she could be sure of its functionality.

After waiting a few more months, Vegeta had grown impatient, and foolishly used the device during the night. As Bulma had feared, the device hadn't worked properly, awaking the three ki sensitive humans. Each of them gasped in horror as from out of the darkness they could see Piccolo, walking slowly towards their camp.

"Oh no…" Tien said, his voice trembling with fear. From out of the darkness they heard a deep, soul crushing malefic laughter.

Vegeta's eyes widened in fear as he realized exactly what he had just done. He lowered himself to the ground right next to the others, backing away as the evil Namekian walked closer and closer.

Gon had been awoken as well, and dragged the sleeping Bulma over to Yamcha.

"Take her, please, we need to go." Gon whispered to the black haired human, who didn't take his eyes off of Piccolo for a second.

"You shouldn't have been so foolish, Vegeta." Piccolo shouted through the darkness, obviously playing up the drama to strike fear into his opponent's hearts.

A few moments after Piccolo spoke, Krillin donned a determined face and took up a fighting stance, walking in front of his friends and putting his arm in front of them.

"Go, now." He said, not looking back for a second. Yamcha almost immediately grabbed Bulma and Gon, rushing off into the distance. Vegeta soon followed, but Tien stayed behind.

"I'm not leaving you Krillin, I want a shot at this guy too." Tien explained, taking a fighting stance as well.

"No!" Krillin shouted, looking back towards Tien "Go, now! Protect Gon and the others, you're their leader now, they need you!" He quickly turned to find Piccolo directly in front of him, staring him down with a grin on his face.

"Hello, Krillin."

A crimson aura surrounded the man as he powered up, ramming his body into Piccolo's chest, sending the Namekian backwards. Krillin turned once again and shouted at Tien "Run, run now!" Tien nodded and blasted off after the others, leaving Krillin behind to fend for himself.

* * *

"The last thing I heard was a scream." Scar gulped, a tear rolling down his face. "Just like Goku, he gave his life so we could have more time." By now, Scar was sitting on the edge of the Lookout, his feet dangling over as he told his story. Goku looked down to the ground, shaking his head.

"What about all of your things?" Goku asked "The capsules, the device, the food?"

"Bulma had enough foresight to prepare; she had a spare of everything and kept it with her at all times." Scar explained, seeming to smile for a moment.

"Yeah, she's the smartest person on Earth." Goku assured.

"In the universe." Scar corrected, losing his smile.

There was a long silence before Scar continued.

"I went back a few months later to that same spot." 'Future' Yamcha said, throwing his bag to his side, pulling out Krillin's symbol. "Tore this off of his clothes, I don't want to go into what Piccolo had done to him." He took a look at the symbol for a while, then placed it back into his pouch, leaving on the ground next to him.

"Why did you defend him?" Goku asked "if he was so horrible, why are these Androids any better?" Scar lowered his head, his chin coming down to his chest as he sighed.

"That one took me a long time to rationalize." Scar said, lifting his head up. He picked up his pouch once again, searching through it for a single item and pulled it out.

Goku gasped when he saw what it was.

Scar's lip quivered as he held the item, memories of his past sprung back to him, and his gave could not be shifted. It took him a full minute before he could even say a single word. "This… this was his…" Scar's trembling hands squeezed the plush monster doll, red and menacing, and yet cute at the same time. He pulled it to his chest as he cried, the tears rolling down his face. "H-he… when he was just seven, he played with it all the time…" Scar cried, fingers still trembling in sadness. "His mother and I… we thought it was ironic, a monster could calm him down, could make him happy…" Scar sighed, wiping his face and ending the tears.

"It's personal, Goku." Scar said, placing the doll back into the pouch "but it's more than that."

Goku had been moved nearly to tears, knowing almost exactly what Scar was feeling. "What do you mean?" The Saiyan asked.

"The Androids, they killed everyone." Scar explained, shaking his head "Piccolo didn't. He left entire cities untouched, while those robots destroyed them without a second thought."

Goku opened his mouth to say something but stopped for a moment, then decided to go on with what he had to say "but if Piccolo had defeated the Androids, what then?"

Scar's hair blew in the chilling wind; he had pondered that same question many a night.

"Maybe my son would still be alive." He thought hopefully, closing his eye as he felt the wind against his face. Goku knew better than to refute Scar's argument. "I know it's stupid, Goku." Scar said a moment later "but don't tell me that you hadn't thought of what would have happened if Raditz hadn't killed you, leaving Piccolo to raise Gohan."

"Don't…" Goku said, shutting his eyes tightly and looking away.

"I'm sorry, old friend." Yamcha apologized "I shouldn't have said that."

The two of them said nothing for another long silence.

"What was his name?" Goku asked Scar of his child. The man sighed, turning to face the Saiyan.

"We named him Goku, after you." Scar answered, seeing the look of surprise on Goku's face almost made him laugh, but he turned around and faced the night sky once more.

"I-I'm honored." Goku said, a grin sweeping across his face before it was crushed by the realization that he had died at the hands of the Androids. "Can you tell me about him?" The Saiyan asked, genuinely intrigued. Scar nodded and sighed once more.

"He was headstrong." Scar explained "he thought he could do anything." Goku nodded, intently staring at Scar as he told about his son "he loved to fight; he always wanted to be better, just like you." Scar said, obviously proud. "He wasn't a weakling either, I taught him how to fight since he was just 5 years old." 'Future' Yamcha nodded "yeah, he was a prodigy alright."

"Sounds like it." Goku agreed, looking over once more at Kami's house.

"He was the best thing to ever happen to us." Scar admitted, rooting around in his pouch once more. Once his fingertips felt it inside the bag, a chill was sent up his spine. He felt the edge of the thin sheet before pulling it out, reaching his arm back towards Goku. "That's the last picture we all took together, I…" Scar closed his eyes as he felt the picture leave his grip "I can't bear to look at it anymore."

Goku eyed the photo carefully; there in the middle was a smiling, happy child with his two smiling, happy parents. Despite the hell they went through, they were still happy somehow, and Goku was filled with a sense of hope.

"He had purple hair…" Goku said, not realizing he had spoken it aloud.

"Yes, he was interesting." Scar nodded, looking down as Goku gently slid the photo face down towards him. Scar picked it up and slid it back into the pouch. "I loved him so much…" Scar gulped and looked over the lookout, remembering all of the wonderful memories he had of his child.

Goku knelt down and placed a hand and Scar's shoulder. "I know."

After a touching moment between them, Goku lifted his hand off Scar's shoulder and walked towards the rock once again.

"So what happened after Piccolo found you?" Goku asked.

* * *

It didn't take long before the five survivors found shelter once again. From their last encounter, it was obvious to them that Piccolo was merely toying around, and allowed them to escape. They mourned Krillin, but also devoted their time to building a new home for themselves. Because of Vegeta's mishap, Bulma was able to modify the spare device she had made and fixed it so that it truly worked as it was supposed to. Vegeta, Tien and Yamcha immediately began training as soon as Bulma had finished her work on the training device.

During the following year, the three fighters had gained immense power, and Tien had nearly mastered the use of the Kaio-Ken. Vegeta concentrated his efforts on attaining more power, and Yamcha had a surprise of his own. He and Bulma had found out together that Bulma was with child.

The two shared a feeling of happiness mixed with fear, fear of what bringing a child into a world ruled by a Demon King would do to said child. Ultimately, they decided that they would go through with it, and seven months later Bulma had successfully given birth to her first child.

Tien and Gon were present for the birth, but Vegeta was out training. His Saiyan genes would not allow him to stop for anything.

"It's a boy!" Yamcha exclaimed, smiling as he held the crying baby in his towel draped arms. Tien and Gon both looked at each other, smiling back at one another as Yamcha held his baby son in his arms.

"Y-yamcha, let me hold him." Bulma said, reaching out and cradling the baby in her arms after Yamcha had handed him to her. "He's so beautiful…" She said, smiling at the wonderful ball of life she had created. She looked up at Yamcha, who smiled back at her with loving eyes. "His name will be Goku." Bulma explained, looking back down at the baby who wrapped his hand around his mother's finger "just like we planned."

Yamcha looked up at Tien, who nodded at the new father approvingly.

"Tien, would you do us the honor of being Goku's godfather?" Bulma asked, looking up at the three eyed human.

"Of course, the honor is all mine." Tien smiled, patting Gon on the back.

The Namekian awkwardly walked up to Bulma and, obviously nervous, asked "May I hold him?"

Bulma laughed a bit and nodded "Just be careful, alright?" Gon nodded and gently cradled the baby in his arms, nearly crying himself.

This was the happiest moment that any of them would ever experience, as just a few months later, another terror far worse than Piccolo would surface.

It seemed like just another day to them when they felt his power resurge. It was unlike anything they had felt before, and it was obvious that Piccolo was struggling against something or someone. It wasn't like the last time they had felt his power just six months ago, they knew that he was sparring then, but now it appeared that he was fighting an unknown enemy

"Should we check it out?" Yamcha asked Tien and Vegeta, who both agreed that they should.

"We need to know what's going on, Bulma, Gon, stay here." Tien ordered, blasting off quickly, followed by Vegeta. Yamcha stayed behind for a moment and looked at Bulma.

"I'll come back, I swear." He promised as he blasted off after the others.

* * *

"That was when it all got worse." Scar said, leaning against a pillar of Kami's house. "None of us had any idea what we were about to witness, and looking back, it would have been better if we hadn't even gone to check at all. At least then they wouldn't have known what we looked like."

Goku was quietly contemplating as he sat on the rock, wondering exactly how Piccolo and the Androids started to fight in the first place.

Just as Scar was about to continue his story, Gon came out along with Kami.

"It is done." Kami proclaimed, sweating from exhaustion.

"You mean Gon is-"

"The keeper of the Dragon Balls, yes." Kami interrupted Goku, turning to face his former pupil. "He is more than capable of holding the title 'Guardian of Earth'." The old Namekian nodded, walking towards the Saiyan as Gon wiped a tear from his eye.

"Kami, I don't know what to say…" Goku claimed, clenching his fists as Kami rested his right hand on Goku's shoulder.

"My time has come and gone already, my friend." Kami said, a tear welling up in his eye "my greatest joy in my life is that I was able to share it with the likes of you, Goku, and your friends."

"Kami, please, don't let this happen…" Goku pleaded, grabbing onto the wise old Namekian's arm. Almost instantly Scar had taken hold of the arm Goku used to grab Kami's forearm.

"Don't do this Goku, he knows and I know the severity of the situation." Scar said, his eyes firmly trained on Goku. The Saiyan released he grip on Kami's hand, allowing him to back away and walk towards the opening of his house. Scar let go of Goku and pat him on the back gently.

"He will be here soon." Kami said, turning to face Scar and Goku. "Take Gon and leave here, he must be kept safe." Kami turned, but before he started to walk into his home for one final rest, he decided to part a few last words of wisdom to his long time friend. "And Goku, remember." The old Namekian dropped his cane to the floor, his head facing the ground "No matter how long the night may seem, the sun always comes in the morning." Mr. Popo escorted Kami back into the building, leaving Goku with a profound sense of loss as well as hope.

He turned to face Scar. "Let's head back to Capsule Corp., you can tell me the rest of the story there." Scar nodded, and they both blasted off in the distance.

* * *

**Hello everyone, saucemonkey here!**

**I find myself once more inclined to give a few shout outs to some fantastic stories in the making, such as "Dragon Ball A-Z" by Arcane Hurricane (A.K.A. Arcane Super Saiyan), "Internal Menace" by FoolsGil, "Gohan: The Fallen Hero" by Gohandominates, "Android 1" by Supersaiyaninfinitygohan, and last but not least "The Majin Legacy" by Ledgic.**

**I have been working closely with Ledgic on "The Majin Legacy" and hope to be co-writing it in the future, so I highly encourage you to check it out and give him some constructive criticism in order to boost his writing spirits.**

**These stories and more are featured in a project known as DBM2, or Dragon Ball Multiverse 2. This is a fan made project based on a fantastic webcomic called Dragon Ball Multiverse by Salagir.**

**I encourage you all to read the original, and if you're interested in finding out more about the project, we have a forum dedicated to it. I will have the link to it on my profile.**

**Once again, I'm terribly sorry about the absence, and I can promise you that I will try my hardest to never allow it to happen again. I love every last one of my readers, and I hope that you all had a great time reading my newest chapter!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven**


	37. The History of Yamcha: Part Two

**The History of Yamcha: Part Two**

**WARNING: This chapter is rated M**

Scar took a seat on the edge of a bed in the Capsule Corp. building; Bulma and her family had been kind enough to allow him to stay there for the time being while he was sorting out what he was to do. Goku had followed him into the room, dropping Gon off with Bulma earlier so that he could listen to the rest of Scar's story. The aged man looked around the room for a moment, seeing Bulma, Tien, Krillin, Vegeta and Gon in the room- just as it had happened that night in his timeline. When he had come from the future, he wasn't sure if he could convince Piccolo to not take action against his friends, but he had a contingency plan in place for such an occasion. He was truly glad it did not have to come to that; without Piccolo, Scar knew that the fighters would stand no chance against the monstrous machines. It was as if he had been given a second chance to correct the faults of the universe, and he wasn't going to let this opportunity worm its way out

As Goku closed the door, Scar's attention was brought to his old friend, smiling up at him and nodding. The Saiyan nodded back, taking a seat in one of the chairs nearest the door. Both of the men had been through so much, they knew each other's pain, and in the brief hours they had known each other they had already formed a bond. Goku trusted Scar, his words all sounded genuine, and despite his previous trust of Piccolo, Goku still knew that he could tell when a person was truly good.

The room stayed silent for a few minutes as the two men collected their thoughts, Goku thinking about his son, while Scar thought about the Androids, and how he would go about helping these people in the following years. Somehow, they both knew exactly what the other was thinking, and out of a mutual respect they kept quiet for a while. It wasn't until Scar broke the silence with a sigh that Goku was awoken from his trance like thought process.

"I know what you must be thinking." Scar said to Goku, looking at the Saiyan intently as his fingers curled into a fist on his lap. Goku looked back up at Scar, his eyes pleading, begging for answers that he knew he couldn't have. Despite the fact that he knew Scar didn't know, he opted to ask the question anyway.

"Did Gohan say anything after I died?" Goku asked with a quiver in his lip, looking Scar directly in the eyes for a moment before breaking the contact and placing his hand on his forehead "did he tell you that he enjoyed killing me?" The Saiyan's voice broke, a tear nearly from his eye before he wiped it off. Scar shook his head, looking at the ground.

"He never spoke to me, I never saw him again after the Androids killed Piccolo." Goku's head immediately jerked up.

"What do you mean you never saw him again?" Goku asked in a rushed tone, almost as if he was angry. Scar looked to the window and then back to Goku.

"His body wasn't there, Goku." Scar began to explain. "That day when we watched those demons kill Piccolo, Gohan was nowhere to be seen."

"Did… did Piccolo-"

"No," Scar adamantly claimed. "Piccolo might be evil, but he cares about that boy." Goku scoffed and shook his head. "No, I think Piccolo bought him enough time to get away."

"So did you try to find him?" Goku asked, his eyes narrowed. Had Gohan lived? Regardless of timeline, choice of morality, or his hatred of his father, Goku wanted to know that at least somewhere his son was okay—even in the future.

"No, if we had found him, he would have killed us…" Scar said, hoping that Goku wouldn't take his words the wrong way. When the Saiyan stayed silent, Scar decided to elaborate further on Gohan's possible fate. "He could still be alive; I don't know. He could have been found and killed too, but…" Goku lifted his head and looked at Scar with half opened eyes.

"Goku, I need to tell you something." The Saiyan looked at the door to the room and back to Scar.

"You've told me a lot of things, Yamcha…" Goku said, sliding his hand through his hair "I'm happy to listen to anything else you want to tell me."

Scar sighed once more, looking to the ground and shaking his head in disappointment.

"There's nothing for me back there, Goku." Scar's voice began to tremble with each word he said. "I'm not going back, everyone I know is dead and the Androids have broken me." Goku immediately stood up in his chair, visibly distraught at Scar's words.

"Don't do this, Yamcha; you're better than that!" Goku shouted, eyes trained on Scar's saddened expression. "Those androids ruined your life, killed everyone you love and now you're just going to let them rule your planet?" Scar shook his head, knowing exactly what Goku was going to say next. "What about Gohan? He could still be alive and you're just going to leave him for the androids to slaughter?"

"It's been twenty years Goku; the Gohan you knew is long gone." It was clear

"That doesn't mean anything to me." Goku said, lowering his voice as well. "I thought you would have learned to never leave an innocent person-"

Scar stood up from the foot of the bed rather abruptly and looked Goku straight in the eye, his eyes burning with such fury that Goku stopped mid-sentence.

"The only thing that I have _ever _learned is that no one is innocent." Scar forcefully claimed. "Don't lecture me about saving people, Goku. All my life I had to watch as all the people I loved _died _because I couldn't save them, and you know what happened when I tried?" Goku's expression turned to shock upon hearing Scar's words. "I got these." Scar pointed to the scar on his eye, then to the giant gash on his chest. "These are my reminders of how pathetic I am."

Goku shook his head and tried to speak, but couldn't find the right words.

"Your son is still alive here, but in my time, he's so far gone that I don't think I want to know what he's like now." Scar sat back down on the bed, placing his right hand on his forehead "You haven't lost everyone yet, Goku. You're lucky, whether you want to think so or not." He looked back up to Goku, who decided to take his seat on the chair once again "I would sacrifice an innocent life to bring back my family; I would sacrifice anyone I needed to if it could bring back my wife and son again… But no, that's not possible, and tomorrow morning I'm going to destroy my time machine."

"But what about-"

"No, Goku. No buts," Scar said "if I go back I'll solve nothing, and even if I could defeat them the world would be no better off. Society has collapsed; the Earth that I know is irreparable."

"But you can stop their suffering!" Goku attempted to explain "all of the people whose lives haven't been destroyed yet, you can stop their sorrow."

"You don't understand, Goku, and you never will." Scar sighed, looking out the window once more into the pitch black night. "To be killed would be a tremendous relief for everyone back on my Earth; you don't know how bad it truly is."

Goku silently resigned and took a seat back on the chair, his face visibly distraught at Scar's words. They sat across each other for quite a while without exchanging a single word until Scar decided to continue his story.

"I'm sorry, Goku." Scar apologized "let's just get back to where I left off." Goku sighed and nodded, lifting his head so that he could look Scar in the eyes.

* * *

Mid flight to their destination, Yamcha had grown very anxious for what they were rushing into despite his initial suggestion to discover the culprit of this surprising turn of events. He had a wife and kid to protect, and now he realized how bad of an idea it was to even be anywhere near Piccolo, whether he was being beaten or not. Yamcha looked over at the two others for a moment to try and gauge their emotions from their facial expressions, but both seemed very stoic at the time, which was a trademark of both fighters.

"Guys… maybe we should head back!" Yamcha shouted to Tien and Vegeta.

"Don't be such a woman!" Vegeta shouted back. Despite the insult, Yamcha felt far more anxiety than anger towards Vegeta.

"We don't know what's over there; it could be a false alarm!" He replied, slowing his speed slightly. The other s followed suit until all three of them were at a complete stop.

"Maybe he's right Vegeta; this could be a bad idea." Tien seconded, causing Vegeta to scoff at their suggestions.

"Do you feel that? Either of you?" The Saiyan paused for a moment to let the fluctuation of Piccolo's power sink into both of their minds. "The Namekian is being beaten senseless and neither of you want to see what's going on?!"

"It could be something worse than Piccolo; what if Gohan's gone off the deep end?" Yamcha suggested, causing Tien to shake his head.

"If it were Gohan, we would have felt his power by now; this power has no ki signature." The three eyed human said. "But you're right, it could be something worse than Piccolo."

"What could possibly be worse than that lunatic?!" Vegeta shouted, outstretching his arm to the area that they had been flying. "Whoever is beating that Namekian is doing this planet a service, we might as well go and see if we can get a few shots at him before he's completely dead." Tien and Yamcha looked at each other for a few moments and then back to Vegeta.

"Alright, fine." Yamcha agreed, causing Vegeta to grin slightly "but if anything goes wrong, I'm out of there, I have too much to lose."

The Saiyan chuckled at what he perceived as the human's cowardice. "However you want to justify yourself, coward."

Yamcha shot Vegeta a dirty look before the three of them took off once more, still in the same direction as Piccolo's waning power signal.

* * *

"Vegeta hadn't changed much." Scar explained, looking up at Goku, who was listening intently. "Still arrogant as ever, still thirsting for someone's blood."

"Did he ever really change?" Goku asked, thinking back to the time that he had fought Vegeta while he was an Oozaru.

"He did, Goku," Scar replied. "But I'll get to that, now, as I was saying…"

* * *

When they had arrived on the scene, the three of them hid behind rocks and masked their power levels as to not be detected. From what they could tell, Piccolo was already on the ground, kneeling as blood dripped down his face to the dirt. His turban and cape were off, his clothes were also torn, his shirt had been shredded completely, and his pants were also battle worn. It was clear that he had been fighting a losing battle for a long time now, and when they looked up they had found the culprits.

"Who the hell are they?!" Vegeta quietly asked Tien, who was right next to him. Tien stayed completely silent, still observing these new fighters. Yamcha had the best view of them, and he could tell that while Piccolo had taken the roughest beating, these two had also taken some rather harsh attacks, as their clothes were fairly battle worn and their bodies were somewhat dirty. What Yamcha didn't understand was why they appeared to be normal looking teenagers, and yet they had been able to take down Piccolo, someone whom not even a Super Saiyan Goku could handle...

"Guys, I can't see Gohan…" Yamcha whispered to the other two, who looked in the direction Yamcha was pointing. "What happened to him?" Yamcha turned away and pressed his back to the rock he was hiding behind, staring up at the sky with a sense of both pity and dread. "What if they killed him?"

Tien and Vegeta looked over as the two teens landed next to the beaten Piccolo. The Namekian got up, revealing more clearly the extent of the damage he had taken. One of his antennae had been ripped clean off, and both of his index and middle fingers were also missing. However, his face showed no fear despite his certain demise.

"Can't do your special trick with your fingers gone now, can you green man?" The male fighter taunted, causing Piccolo to smirk. "Huh, what are you smiling about?" The Namekian chuckled and instantly re-grew his missing fingers, surprising the two similar looking teenage fighters. Piccolo raised his fingers to his head and vanished from sight, but all the young fighters had to do was look around to see that he had transported not far away.

"Damn it!" Piccolo shouted in the sky, his fingers still close to his head. "Work, damn it!"

The two fighters blasted off towards Piccolo, who threw many weak ki attacks at them. They blocked and dodged every single one, reaching Piccolo in mere seconds. The female struck first, ramming her leg into Piccolo's stomach as the male zoomed around and grabbed the Namekian as he flew backwards. The blond haired woman rushed up and delivered a series of blisteringly fast punches to Piccolo's body, causing him to scream out in pain with each hit until she was finally satisfied. She motioned to the other fighter to let him go, and both of them watched as Piccolo fell to the ground.

At this point, Yamcha, Tien and Vegeta were all wondering why exactly they couldn't feel these fighters energies, but what bothered them more was how they were somehow stronger than Piccolo. It was a mystery that they desperately wanted answers to—however, an odd sense of foreboding told them they'd find their answer soon.

The black haired male picked Piccolo up by the back of his neck, lifting him until he was on his knees and then dropping him. The Namekian opened his eyes for a moment and caught a glimpse of Yamcha before the man quickly ducked his head behind the rock. A devilish grin came upon Piccolo's face, confusing the fighters who had thoroughly beaten him just as much as it confused the spectators.

"What is it with this guy and smiling?" The female asked in a casual tone, to which the male simply shrugged.

"Why don't you come out and play, Yamcha!?" Piccolo shouted over to where he had seen the human. "Stop hiding and meet my new friends!" The Namekian coughed out, devolving into a full coughing fit that lasted for a few brief moments.

Yamcha was frozen solid; he didn't know what to do at that point except for to definitely stay hidden.

"Don't move a muscle." Vegeta warned as quietly as he could.

"He's just delusional," The male fighter proclaimed. "We've beaten him so hard that he's hallucinating." The girl chuckled and flicked Piccolo's head, hard enough for him to wince in pain.

"Do what you want to me, but I have something of a challenge for you." Piccolo said as he looked up towards the teen fighters.

"Oh?" The male one replied curiously "and what would that be?"

"Kill those losers, the humans that escaped me." Piccolo explained as he chuckled "Yamcha's right over there; why not start with him?"

The two young fighters looked at one another for a moment and then back to Piccolo. "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer, maybe not." The male fighter pressed his hand against the Namekian's chest, his fingers outstretched. "You won't live long enough to know if I finished the job that you couldn't. It's still too bad you and that brat killed Goku, I would have loved to do it myself."

"My pleasure; don't thank me."

Piccolo smirked as the man released a devastating ki beam through him, causing Piccolo to fall over.

"Oh, he isn't dead yet, is he?" The girl asked, kneeling down and picking Piccolo up by his neck. "Maybe we should take his head, like he took Goku's." She smiled and gripped his neck harder, but the now harshly breathing Piccolo couldn't muster the strength to scream in pain.

"I have a better idea sis," The boy said "let's just rip it off and leave it here to rot."

"Good idea." She agreed, throwing the body to her brother "you do it, I've already got enough muck on my shirt as it is."

"Fine, fine." He said, thrusting Piccolo's head down to the ground face first, putting his fingers tightly in a row similar to that of a karate chop. He quickly sliced down on the backside of Piccolo's neck with his fingers, causing it split open slightly and spurt out blood.

Tien and Vegeta watched in both horror and disgust, while Yamcha attempted to hide from view as to not draw their attention.

The brother then proceeded to dig his hand into Piccolo's neck, wresting his other hand in there as well, pulling his head apart from his body with such force that it took merely seconds.

Piccolo's head rolled a good few feet away, spurting blood profusely from the stump where it used to be attached to his body. His eyes were cold, and it was clear that he was now completely dead.

"That was fun!" The male said, wiping some blood stains from his hands onto his pants "I wonder if we can find a good dry cleaner around here." The two of them chuckled for a bit, giving Tien and Vegeta time to assess the situation.

"We should get the hell out of here." Tien suggested to Vegeta, who nodded in total agreement. They turned to Yamcha who turned back to them.

"We can't go now; we have to wait until they leave." He whispered to the two of them. They nodded and looked back.

"Oh fuck!" Vegeta shouted as he took a step back, right in front of the rock the two fighters were seemingly waiting from someone to look back.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Vegeta." The male said in a calm, almost insulting voice. He looked over to Tien and Yamcha as well, smiling in a friendly manner. "Tien and Yamcha, I see. So Piccolo wasn't delusional." He added, turning to his sister. "This here is my sister, 18, and I'm 17."

No one spoke a single word; they were all too frightened to comment on their strange names.

"You see, we're androids created by the late, _great_, Dr. Gero." 17 explained, putting emphasis on the word great. "We were built to… well, you just saw that."

"Y-you…" Yamcha spoke up, finally snapping out of his horrible fright. "You were built to…"

"More or less, I'm terribly sorry you had to witness that horrible event just now," He said, smirking rather smugly "that fight was nasty, I'm glad you didn't have to see the whole thing."

"How are you so strong?!" Yamcha asked abruptly, causing 17 to shift his attention to the man.

"Cybernetic implants." He grinned, knocking on his own arm to allow the others to hear the clang of metal. "Technology is rather wonderful."

"How did you know our names?" Tien questioned, turning 17's attention away from Yamcha.

"Dr. Gero had a database on all of you, I know every single detail of how strong you are, what techniques you know and all of your weaknesses." 17 answered, causing Vegeta and Tien to exchange worried looks.

"B-but you're not designed to hurt us right?" Yamcha worriedly asked. 17 chuckled and shook his head.

"Now why would I want to do that?" 17 said.

"I'm getting bored of this." 18 announced. 17 turned around and shot her a strange glance. "Don't look at me like that; I don't know what your fascination with playing with our victims is." Almost at the same time the other three fighters' eyes shot open and began to fly away as quickly as possible.

"Great, thanks 18, you ruined it." 17 said in disgust "I'll get Yamcha, let the rest go."

"But-"

"Shut up, I'll tell you the plan in a second." 17 interrupted, catching up to Yamcha almost immediately and throwing him to the ground as Tien and Vegeta escaped. 18 walked over to Yamcha and knelt to get a better look at his face. Mockingly, she 'tenderly' stroked his scarred cheek.

"He's rather cute, don't you think?" 18 purred mockingly to tease Yamcha; 17 rolled his eyes.

"Not for long." 17 picked Yamcha up by his shoulder, squeezing down so hard that Yamcha screamed in pain.

"Why!?" Yamcha shouted out "Why are you doing this!?"

"For fun." 18 said, looking at her nails for a moment before placing her finger on Yamcha's forehead. "We haven't had so much fun in a long time."

"And since we didn't get to kill Goku, we might as well take it out on you." 17 chuckled, holding Yamcha in place as 18 clawed her way down the man's face. Blood dripped down Yamcha's face, screaming even louder than before, utterly powerless in the face of these two new psychopaths.

"No, stop!" Yamcha screamed as 18 made her way from his forehead to his left eye. She didn't let up however, and her two nails gouged through his eye, causing the man so much pain that his voice went hoarse as he squirmed in 17's grip. His aura flared up immensely, sometimes it would turn crimson as his power spiked and fell quickly, but it was no use, and 18 released her nails from Yamcha's face after permanently damaging his eyeball. 17 then dropped Yamcha to the ground, and the man immediately placed his left hand over his eye wound as he managed to lift himself up to his knees.

"Should we have more fun with him?" 18 asked, a hint of sadism caught in her voice. 17 shook his head.

"No, we let him go."

"What?!" 18 shouted "Why are you letting him live?"

"Simple, sis…" 17 assured. "Now we can make a game of it, a mark for every one of his friends we kill, starting with Piccolo. I suppose that's point 1 for me."

"You sick bastards…" Yamcha mumbled, blood dripping from his hand which covered his wound. 17 kicked Yamcha in the chest, lifting him in the air with the force of the kick and causing him to land on his back.

"Be a little more thankful that you aren't dead right now." 18 said. "Maybe this _will_ be fun."

"I told you. Have a little faith, 18." They both had demented grins on their face as they began to depart. "Don't forget, Scar, we won't stop till everyone is dead." 17 shouted to Yamcha as he lay on the ground.

* * *

Scar's left hand covered his eye scars, shaking his head and trembling. "That's how I got this beauty." He sighed and lowered his head in shame.

"Those sounds…"

"Yes, even though it was happening to Piccolo, I still felt sick." Scar said, interrupting Goku "Even after he fused with Kami, he was no match for their combined power."

"The way you said it, it sounds like Piccolo put up one hell of a fight." Goku mentioned. Scar nodded; his expression wasn't so much one of pride as it was defeat.

"The Androids, 17 and 18, were really beat up by the time we had gotten there." The scarred man explained "I think if they hadn't taken him on at the same time, he would have at least taken one of them with him. Piccolo's power could've won if it wasn't a two-on-one advantage to the androids." Scar sighed, curling the hand lying on his lap into a fist "We aren't just training to defeat the Androids Goku; we're training to defeat Piccolo. Don't let the threat of the androids overshadow him. "

Goku and Scar both turned immediately as they heard a loud knock on their door. Scar looked over at the Saiyan, who shrugged and went to the door to unlock it.

"Hey you two," Bulma said as the door swung open, holding a plate full of food in her hands. Scar turned away to look at the window, afraid that if he saw too much of Bulma he would go mad from the temptation she presented to him. "I thought you two might be hungry after all that happened today."

Goku sniffed food on the rather large place. "Ahhhh…" He said, a smile returning to his face. "Thanks Bulma, I'd almost forgotten how hungry I was!" Bulma smiled back at Goku and walked into the room, placing the food on a table that Goku moved in between his chair and the foot of the bed that Scar was sitting upon.

"Do you guys mind if I eat with you?" Bulma asked, "Yamcha's been acting strangely, I don't blame him, but I think he needs some space."

"Yes."

Both Goku and Bulma looked at him curiously. "I'm sorry, but Goku and I need to discuss this alone." Bulma gulped and turned around without a word, walking out of the room. Goku hesitated a moment and then followed her out, closing the door behind him.

"I'm sorry about that Bulma; he's been through a lot you know." Goku explained, causing Bulma to turn and face her closest friend.

"I know, but I still want to know what happened." The blue haired woman said as she looked over her shoulder "I want to know if Yamcha is the right guy for me."

Goku took a step forward and placed his hand on Bulma's shoulder.

"That's up to you and Yamcha to decide, Bulma. No one can tell you who to be with. Heck, be with Vegeta if it makes you happy. Just follow your heart." The Saiyan released his reassuring hand from her and turned around, beginning to clutch the doorknob before he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist.

"Oh Goku, I was so scared that you were going to die today." She cried, clutching his back as tightly as she could. Goku turned around and returned her hug.

"I know, Bulma." Goku said, patting her on the back "But I'm here, you don't have to worry, I don't plan on going anywhere." Hearing his words comforted her; she released him from her embrace and smiled up at him.

"I don't tell you this enough Goku, but being so terrified today I…" She wiped a stray tear from her eye and looked back up at her dearest friend "I love you, not in the way that I love Yamcha, but in the way that a friend who's grateful for you always being there loves you." She warmly smiled at Goku, and pictured him once more as the young and eccentric youth she had met so many years ago.

Goku returned her smile, picturing her as the wild and rebellious youth that had changed his life when their paths crossed.

"I know, I've never doubted that." Goku said, turning once more to open the door "Good night Bulma, and don't forget to tell Yamcha how much you care." With that, Goku entered the room and shut the door behind him. When he looked over, Scar had been stuffing his mouth with food and looked up at Goku with eyes wide open.

"Ah, sorry Goku." Scar said, mouth still full of food. He gulped down hard, clearing his mouth "I haven't eaten in a while, you know?" Goku laughed and sat back down on his chair.

"I'm a Saiyan, Yamcha, if anyone understands, I do."

The two of them ate the rest of the food rather quickly, but spent some time after talking about trivial things, such as what Chi-Chi was doing nowadays and how Ox King was faring. After the small talk deceased, all that was left was to continue Scar's story, which the man wasn't exactly ecstatic about.

"Well, as you know, after my mishap with the Androids I stumbled over to Piccolo's body to see if he had anything on him." Scar said, now resting his back on the headboard of the bed, one leg lazily stretched out as the other one bent up to allow his arm to rest on it. "Senzu beans, mostly, since we only had a few left from one of our trips to Korin's place."

"You never told me what happened to Korin, you know." Goku wondered, trying to think back and see if Scar had even mentioned senzu beans before.

"I honestly don't know." Scar said, looking up at the ceiling in thought "when we got up there, Korin was nowhere to be found."

"What about Yajirobe?"

"He wasn't there either." The man explained, looking back towards Goku "Only things we could find were a few stray senzu beans on the floor."

"Damn." Goku shouted quietly "Piccolo thought of everything didn't he?"

"Yeah, he really did." Scar agreed, tilting his head to the side and shaking his head "anyway, I was in luck, he had one left in his bag."

"But…" Goku stopped Yamcha before he began his next sentence "how do you still have the scar?"

"I was getting to that." Scar said, shaking his head in disappointment "I guess that the older senzu beans gradually lose their healing abilities, because after I had eaten it, the bleeding stopped and the gash's immediately scarred over, but I still couldn't open my eye."

"I've never heard Korin say anything like that before, although the bean never made much sense to me in the first place." Goku said, thinking back to the first time he had eaten a Senzu bean.

"It could have been a lot of reasons really, but it doesn't matter, after I ate the bean I left for the group again."

* * *

When Yamcha landed back down at their makeshift home he was greeted by a rather powerful hug from Bulma. She scolded him for leaving and her expression turned to shock as she discovered the scar on his eye. Tien ran over after realizing that Yamcha had returned, feeling regretful that he had ran away while the Androids captured his friend.

"I'm so sorry, Yamcha, I should have stayed with you." Tien apologized, Yamcha's response only being a harsh glare. Tien stepped back and looked to the ground in shame.

"They did this to me." Yamcha explained, anger deep in his voice "I was lucky enough to find a senzu bean on Piccolo's dead body, but it only stopped the bleeding and healed over the scar."

"I'm just glad you're back." Bulma said, tears rolling down her face. After their embrace, Yamcha walked over into the house and up the stairs where the baby was sleeping in his crib, being diligently guarded by Gon. The Namekian nodded at Yamcha and left the room having heard everything that was said outside.

Bulma and Yamcha stood over the cradle, a tear fell down Yamcha's face as he realized that while Piccolo was certainly one of the biggest threats they faced, now they had two dangerously insane androids hell bent on destroying the remaining Z fighters.

"They won't stop till we're all dead." He said to Bulma, placing his hand on his forehead. "We can't stay in one place; we have to get out of here."

* * *

"We moved so much, to so many different places." Scar explained, his head resting on the pillow of his bed "We tried to blend in as best we could with the people of the cities, or at least what was left of them. The androids made short work of the cities still left intact from Piccolo's short reign." Scar's voice grew softer as he spoke, and Goku could tell that he was obviously tired. "Goku was… he was always making friends with the other children where we moved. My son, the social butterfly…" His eyes closed fully and his bent knee relaxed into a resting position. Goku slowly rose from his chair and looked at Scar's smiling face for a moment before exiting the room.

Goku sighed after the door had been completely shut, he needed to hear the rest of this story, but he also wanted desperately to go home to his wife and tell her how much he loved her.

Goku headed down to room where Bulma was working on some kind of device with her father, he looked around for a moment, amazed at all of the gadgets and gizmos that he saw around the room.

"Why hello there Goku, nice to see you again." Dr. Briefs shouted down from a scaffolding, prompting a wave from Goku.

"Hey Dr. Briefs, nice to see you too!" He shouted up, turning back to Bulma after seeing that the good doctor had went back to work on his project. "I'm going back home for the night, Bulma." He explained, causing her to turn around and nod back at him "get some sleep, you look tired."

Bulma smiled and shook her head "Not tonight, Goku, too many things on my mind." The two of them shared a quick hug and then Goku was off.

* * *

His dreams held no comfort for him; Scar's mind was running rampant with memories of the past that he had been trying not to remember. Everything was flooding back to him uncontrollably, his mind raced with thoughts that he successfully repressed from his memory, and he shifted wildly in his bed.

An old man with a wrinkled face looked down over a pale landscape as the Androids taunted him while they beat and tortured Bulma and his son, Goku. He looked behind himself to see a lumbering man in a green jacket holding him in place, his eyes red and face darkened by a looming shadow. His aura burst into a yellowish golden color, reminiscent of Goku's super Saiyan transformation, but it wasn't enough, and the lumbering man kept his tight hold of him as his family was being brutally beaten.

Tien slowly made his way towards the Android 18, the entire dream slowed down immensely before 18 caught Tien's leg and threw him into Bulma, sending them both flying meters away. 17 laughed and kicked Goku in the back of the head, causing him to land face first in the dirt. He knelt down and picked the child up by his hair, his face bloodied and his nose broken.

Scar screamed out in desperation for him to release his son, but 17 paid no attention to him and lifted the boy into the air, causing the boy to squirm and kick at the Androids hard metallic body. The dream moved by extremely slowly, accentuating the absolute torment that Scar felt as he watched the horror in front of him.

His child looked down at his father one last time, face full of freight and sadness as 17's arm ripped through his chest, killing him almost immediately.

Scar looked away in pain, screaming as loudly as he could as he heard Bulma's voice cry out for Yamcha to save her. He looked back over to find that Tien's neck was slit open, his face in sheer agony as he flopped around. 18 was mid punch. Her fist collided with Bulma's face, denting it inwards as blood exploded in every direction.

Scar screamed once more, still unable to move as he watched his wife's body fall to the ground, completely lifeless. Goku's body landed on the ground and bounced up slightly, all still in a painfully slow manner.

Tears flowed from Scar's face as he watched the Androids walk closer to him; each step more agonizing to watch.

Closer they came, ensuring Scar's death, or he hoped it would.

As 18 reached his face, she stepped forward and kissed him, laying her hands on either side of Yamcha's head. She received a knee in the stomach for her efforts.. The attack did nothing to faze her, however.

As the android's lips came off of his, she lifted her head to the side of Scar's head and began to whisper something in his ear, her deceptively sweet and soft voice tickling his ear. What he saw over 18's shoulder was even more horrifying, a large greenish insect like monster stood right behind 17, its tail hovering over his smug face as it opened on the tip and wrapped around his body. As 17 struggled, the monster's eyes stared at Scar, their redness even more horrifying that the brute that was holding him in place. Somehow Scar felt as if he had seen this monster somewhere.

"See you soon."

* * *

Scar jumped up in the bed, sweat dripping down his face as well as tears. He reached his hand up wiped it off, shaking his hand to the side. He rested on his arms and stared over to the wall, not wanting to think of anything, just wishing to relax.

The green monster's face stuck with him; its visage burned into his psyche. Whatever it was, he had a feeling that it wasn't something that he should take lightly.

"Nighmares…" Scar said to himself, lifting a cloth from the nightstand and wiping his forehead."I should have brought my medicine…"

Sleep did not return to him that evening.

* * *

**Hey everyone, saucemonkey here! I said this would only be a two parter, but I've decided to add one final part to Scar's special so that this chapter doesn't go past a 15000 word count. Reading through some of the comments it looks like a lot of you wanted to hear Gohan's thoughts on killing his father, well I'm sorry to say it but this special is being told from Scar's perspective, thus he would have no idea what is going on in Gohan's mind.**

**Keep the questions coming; I have a lot of them stored away so that at the end of the next chapter I'll be able to put up the Q and A session. You're all great and thank you for reading my latest chapter of **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: Super Vegetarott**


	38. The History of Yamcha: Part Three

**The History of Yamcha: Part Three**

**WARNING: This chapter is rated M**

Kami sat outside on the ground of the lookout, legs crossed, meditating as he used to do many years ago. So many things had happened in the years since Raditz had shown up, most of which Kami wished that he could have stopped. He tried to remedy the situation by using his powers to show Gohan the life that he could have led, with the love of friends and his father, but for all of Kami's hopeful optimism, it was only met with disaster. The boy had grown even more mentally unstable thanks to Kami's interference, and now there was almost no helping the child. In some small part he felt responsible for Gohan's start of darkness, his evil counterpart having taken the boy and turned him against his father while Kami sat by and idly watched. There was no denying that Kami felt terribly guilty about the whole situation, and Mr. Popo could tell.

The genie stood at the door to Kami's home, staring out at his best friend as Kami lifted up into the sky, still in a meditating pose. Mr. Popo knew well and good exactly what would happen that night, and tears streamed down his face as he solemnly watched Kami's aura flare. There was a new guardian of Earth, but Popo knew he would have to go through a lot in order to get over Kami's inevitable absorption. There was nothing he could possibly do, and so he allowed his friend one last night of silent meditation.

The elder Namekian felt freer now that he had released control of the Dragon Balls onto another, and in fact he felt somewhat at peace as well. Despite the fact that he was about to allow Piccolo to become whole again, he knew that somehow, some way, Goku and his friends would find a way to stop Piccolo as they had always done before. Kami's lips curled into a smile as he thought back on all of his years as Earth's guardian, the first time he met Goku, his happy years serving with Mr. Popo. Nothing could take those moments away, not even Piccolo.

Kami lowered himself back to the ground, his aura dispersing as he stood back on his two feet. He looked over to the crying Popo and began to walk over to his dearest friend.

"Mr. Popo, I-" Kami saw something materialize behind the genie, and as quickly as it had came it left with Mr. Popo. Kami quickly swerved around and found Piccolo holding Mr. Popo with one arm in a choke hold, his evil grin and malicious eyes staring directly at his other half. "Put him down, you monster!" Kami shouted up to Piccolo, clenching his hands into fists, ready to strike.

"You old fool." Piccolo shouted down to his counterpart, his arm firmly around a gasping Popo's neck "How did you not see this coming, huh?" he questioned as the genie kicked and struggled in his arm.

"He's done nothing to you, Piccolo." Kami shouted, readying a ki blast in his hand.

"Idiot!" The evil Namekian laughed, squeezing ever so slightly harder on Popo's neck. "I don't need a reason to do what I do." Piccolo formed his free hand into the shape of a gun and dug his nail slightly into the side of Popo's head, his toothy grin showing his intentions.

"Don't do it, Piccolo, for if you do…" Kami raised his hand to the lower left side of his face, a ki ball already made and ready to be shot. For a moment Piccolo's face lost its smug smirk, but he quickly regained it after coming up with a plan.

He dug his nail deeper into Popo's skull, causing him to scream out in pain as Piccolo chuckled "I dare you to do it, old man." Kami's face was utterly serious, and the ki ball grew in size with every passing second.

They stared at each other for a few moments before Piccolo began to laugh, causing Kami to begin breathing harder than he had before.

"I knew you wouldn't, you coward." The Namekian's demonic smile pierced the soul of Kami, who knew exactly what was about to happen if he didn't act soon.

"Bang." A beam of ki went straight through Popo's head, blood and brain matter splattered out, some of it covering half of Piccolo's visage. Kami unleashed the ki ball upon his own face, but to his dismay he found himself being thrown to the ground by Piccolo, who had used instant transmission to prevent Kami from ending his own life. The older Namekian rose up from the ground was met with a brutal kick to the stomach from his counterpart, who laughed all the while. "That was fun; I haven't gotten to kill an innocent since I landed on that planet." As soon as Kami rose again, Piccolo swiftly moved up to the old Namek and grabbed him by his neck, slamming him up against the wall of his house. "You're resilient; I'll give you that, old timer." Piccolo taunted as he looked deep into Kami's eyes.

Piccolo felt a blast of energy on his stomach. He looked down to find that Kami had attempted to blow a hole in Piccolo's body but failed, he looked back up at Kami's face with a smirk.

"Crafty, but I'm too strong for you to even harm." Piccolo said, gripping Kami's neck slightly harder than before. "Let me tell you something, Kami, I'm going to absorb you, and I'm going to go down there and kill every last one of those idiotic people that you've been so desperately trying to protect." His grin widened as he saw the look on Kami's face "I'll torture every one of them, just for you. I'll tear out every mother's beating heart and force it down their child's throats, I'll rip off their limbs and feast on their blood, I'll take every newborn child and spit roast it on an open fire." Piccolo brought his head even closer to Kami's until his mouth was right next to his ear "and all of it, every last dead human, will be your fault." He whispered, chuckling as he spoke "You should have thought a little harder about letting me absorb you, huh?" Piccolo pulled back and laughed as he saw the tears streaming down Kami's face, his arms latched onto Piccolo's in a desperate attempt to get free.

"This is it, fucker!" Piccolo shouted as Kami's body started to dissipate, his body and power being drained by his evil counterpart as he continued to try and be released from his grip.

A piercingly loud cackle could be heard in the surrounding areas. No one was safe anymore.

* * *

The morning sun rose over the horizon as Goku sat outside of his home. He had a long talk with his wife about what he was going to be doing for the next three years, and he also explained to her how much he loved her. He hadn't done it enough, but now he felt better that this version of Chi-Chi still had a loving husband, whereas the Scar's timeline's Chi-Chi had no one left but her father.

They made love that night, but that didn't help put Goku's mind at ease. He found no sleep, much as many other people had night had, but he was feeling awake as ever after feeling Piccolo's power skyrocket just a few hours ago. It was unfathomable, and Goku knew that if Piccolo wanted he could easily kill every last one of the fighters. For now he hoped that Scar's warning would keep him at bay, no matter how thinly veiled that hope may have been.

After he had eaten breakfast with his wife he gave her a passionate kiss goodbye and flew off to Capsule Corp. to check on Scar and the rest of the fighters.

When he arrived he was led to a larger room with many of the people that he knew in it surrounding a table with food. It was obviously breakfast time, as even the few remaining soldiers from Frieza's army sat around the table with the other fighters. Even Jeice and his fellow team members were there, eyeing Scar with suspicion and hate.

* * *

"I can't believe the cap'n is dead…" Jeice said, pushing around some food on his plate after he was tired at looking at the scarred man. Cui and Guldo shared his sentiment, but Fiore was just confused as to what was going to happen now that her boss was dead.

"I barely knew him, but I miss him now." Cui admitted, shaking his head in disappointment. "I guess that makes you our leader now Jeice." The red alien's head perked up slightly upon hearing that.

"I like the sound of that, Cui." Jeice said as he smiled "Team Jeice… lets go with that!"

* * *

Goku was surprised to see that even Vegeta was there, eating alone at the end of the table opposite of Jeice and his men. Scar was sitting next to Tien and across from Krillin, he had changed his clothes from his black gi and was now wearing a more informal flannel shirt and khaki pants. A seat beside him was open and Goku took it quickly.

"Hey Goku!" Krillin joyously said, happy to be talking to his best friend again.

The three of them talked a while, mostly about what they planned to do in the short time that they had before Scar's predicted date of the Androids showing up. After breakfast was over, Goku and Scar parted ways with the others and retired to the balcony of Scar's room that overlooked much of West City. Scar himself leaned against the rail of the balcony, the sunlight shining down on him showed how grisly his scars really were, and Goku attempted not to stare at them.

"You felt it last night, didn't you?" Scar asked, looking out on some of the people walking along the street. Goku nodded and closed the sliding glass door that he had come through.

"I didn't know what to expect when you told me about the power you felt when he absorbed Kami in your timeline." Goku admitted, walking up next to Scar and placing a hand on the rail "It was… incredible, and terrifying."

"I have a good reason Goku; the Androids did more damage to the world in a shorter amount of time than Piccolo had." Scar explained, shaking his head as he envisioned what the city would have looked like in his timeline, a desolate wasteland of death and destruction. "There were so many people dead in the first month that I couldn't believe it."

Goku swallowed hard and looked up to the bright sky, taking solace in the fact that Scar had bought him precious time to live. "Why were they so ruthless?" The Saiyan asked, turning back to Scar who brought out a small box of cigarettes from his pocket. He turned to Goku and smiled slightly at the man's surprise.

"You don't mind, do you?" Scar asked, Goku shook his head.

"No, but I just never imagined…"

"Its fine, it helps me deal with it all." Scar explained as he turned back to the city, placing the cigarette in his mouth and lighting it with the lighter he dug out of his pocket moments ago. He took a long drag of the cigarette before taking it out of his mouth and releasing the smoke into the air away from Goku's face.

"Doesn't that impair your fighting?" The Saiyan wondered aloud, causing Scar to nod.

"I've been doing it for so long now that sometimes it does, but I'm in great shape so usually it doesn't bother me." He answered, taking another drag and unleashing the smoke "I'm going to quit, though, before the Androids show up." He flicked the ashes off the end of the stick "Now how about I finish that story, huh?"

* * *

The six of them all moved around together for years, never staying in one spot too long, always trying to blend in with the distraught families that were mourning their lost loved ones from the Androids horrible slaughter. The Androids killed like it was a game, they seemed to have no rhyme or reason for the things that they did, almost as if they had forgotten all about their original directive. The power, it seemed, had gotten to them, and now they fancied themselves gods, raining death down upon the people of the Earth.

Gon would have been hard to hide, but people were usually so depressed that they didn't care about the small alien. True to his friendly nature, Gon helped the people that he saw as much as he could, healing them if they had gained an injury or simply comforting them if they needed someone to talk to. Keeping a low profile was difficult for some in the group, especially for Vegeta who despised all of the hiding he was being forced to do, and would rather be out trying to fight the Androids.

"You know they'll kill you in an instant." Tien liked to remind Vegeta, who still wasn't even as powerful as Tien was with the Kaio-Ken technique. It was easier for Yamcha and Tien to train, as they didn't have to power up in order to strengthen themselves with the Kaio-Ken, gaining access to new levels and more heightened levels of different parts or aspects of their abilities with it. Because they didn't know if these Androids could sense energy, they kept their power signatures as low as possible to avoid confrontation.

They moved around successfully for 7 years before anything of note happened.

Yamcha's son was being trained one day by his father when some of the people in their current group ran down into the basement of the building they were hiding. The man was in hysterics, shouting at the top of his lungs that they were coming, and that they had already killed some of the other men on watch.

"Who's coming?!" Yamcha shouted at the man, grabbing onto his son's arm.

"Those fuckers who destroyed everything!" He screamed out, causing everyone in the room to panic. Yamcha looked over to Tien and Vegeta who were both playing cards at the time, and they both nodded back to Yamcha. The scarred man took his son and grabbed his wife, rushing out of the building from a secret back entrance that they had built in case of an emergency.

"Goku, listen very carefully" Yamcha said to his son after he had found a suitable place to hide "Take mommy and fly to the nearest city, alright?" the child looked over to his mother and then back to his dad, totally speechless. "I said do you understand Goku?!" Yamcha quietly yelled, causing the child to nod.

"Yes, dad, I'll take mom and go far away." Yamcha smiled and pat Goku on the head, lifting himself from his knee and looking at his wife.

"Yamcha, take this." She said, handing him some kind of communicator. "When you're safe, call us on it…" She wiped a tear from her eye and hugged Yamcha "Don't you die out there…" The scarred man nodded and hugged back, releasing his wife from the embrace moments later and rushing off to help his friends.

When he arrived at the top of the building they were staying at he spotted the two horrible figures, leaning against an adjacent building while Tien evacuated the people, giving them directions on where to go. Vegeta simply stared at the duo, his eyes filled with years of pent up rage and aggression.

"Oh, look here sis, Scar decided to join the party." 17 chuckled, lifting himself from his leaning position.

"Maybe now we can have some fun." She replied, lifting her hand and shooting a ki ball at a group of fleeing innocents.

Tien immediately noticed the attack "Kaio-Ken!" he shouted, his aura exploding into a crimson hue as he rushed over the ball of ki and slammed against the side of it with his foot, redirecting it towards the mountains in the distance. His aura dissipated as he lowered himself to the ground, Yamcha also lowered himself from the building to land next to his friend.

"Great job, Tien." Yamcha complimented, keeping his eyes peeled on the two androids. 17 began clapping, the smirk on his face enraged Vegeta even more now than he had ever felt before.

"Yes, great job baldy, you saved a few pathetic lives." 17 mocked, shaking his head and ceasing the clapping. Vegeta chuckled.

"Too bad there isn't anyone who can save your pathetic life, robot." Vegeta rushed at 17 and landed a powerful knee to the Androids stomach. 17 didn't move an inch, and merely watch Vegeta's face as he recoiled and screamed in pain.

"That tickled." 17 taunted in a calm voice as Vegeta clenched his teeth tightly together. Tien and Yamcha quickly flew to either side of their comrade and helped him to his feet. The Saiyan looked at the two of them for a moment and smirked.

"You two are useless, get out of here; I'll be the one to avenge Kakarot today." Vegeta claimed, knowing that the only thing he would be able to do is buy them some time to escape.

"Forget it Vegeta, we have to make a stand here and now." Yamcha said, clenching his fists "I'm tired of living in fear every single day! You two should never have been created, and now I'll make you wish you never were." Yamcha's aura grew in size as he powered up and took a fighting stance.

"Tall talk coming from the most useless fighter of all." 18 said in a monotone voice "You're way out of your league, Scar, why not run off and let the grownups talk things through."

"Kaio-Ken times twenty!" Yamcha shouted, his aura bursting into a shade of red as he blasted off towards 18. Her brother intercepted Yamcha as he made his way towards her and rammed his fist straight into Yamcha's gut, sending him careening across the ground.

"Yamcha!" Tien shouted over to his friend, his aura also bursting into a large red shade "Kaio-Ken times twenty!" 17 looked over and was met with a brutal punch to the face that sent his back a few feet in the air. Tien didn't let up, he pushed forward and rammed another fist into the Androids abdomen, causing him to bowl over slightly, giving Tien the opportunity to lift his arms up and cup is fists together. Before he could swing his arms down, 18 appeared behind him and grabbed him around the waist, causing Tien to look over his shoulder at the female Android and release his right hand from his left, pushing as much of his power as he could into his right arm as he slammed it into 18's face.

18 screamed out in pain as she released Tien and was sent flying towards the ground. Her face had been dented slightly, and she held her cheek as she arose from the crater that she had made upon impact.

"Kill him 17, he actually fucking hurt me!" She screamed to her brother as her back was met with a powerful kick from behind. Yamcha in his Kaio-Ken state flipped around after the kick and landed on his feet a few meters away from where he had kicked 18, jumping back and forth with his fists up.

"Who's useless now you bitch?!" Yamcha shouted at the enraged Android, who turned around to show her extremely angered facial expression.

"You, when I'm through mutilating your corpse!" She yelled, flying towards Yamcha at breakneck speed.

Yamcha threw up his arms quickly, using his Kaio-Ken to strengthen the defense around his arms. When 18's fist rammed into Yamcha's forearms she recoiled back in shock, not only had he completely blocked her attack, but he didn't seem affected at all. "What the hell!?"

Yamcha stood in place for a moment, trying to hold back the screams of pain he held inside. He had blocked the attack with minimal damage to himself, but the impact left behind a huge amount of pain. He lowered his arms and looked up at 18 with a smile.

Meanwhile, Tien had backed away from 17 and was dodging all of his punches with his augmented speed, using all of the power that Kaio-Ken gave him to quickly move out of the way of any and all punches 17 threw, infuriating him greatly.

"Stop dodging you coward!" 17 shouted, continuing his barrage as quickly as he could. Tien disappeared from 17's sight momentarily before Tien redirected the Kaio-Ken's power to his right arm once again, slamming 17 in the back with a powerful punch. 17 shouted out and was pushed forward, but managed to stop himself and turn around to find that Tien was totally out of breath. 17 smirked and shook his head, moving his shoulders to straighten out his back. "You hit hard, but you have no stamina." He said, knowing that the battle was already over.

Yamcha and 18 both looked over as the saw Tien's body falling quickly from the sky, landing with brutal force against the ground. Yamcha shouted in dismay and was met with a quick shot to the stomach by 18.

"Shut up." 18 said, grabbing Yamcha's shoulders and throwing him over to where Tien had fallen. Vegeta rushed up behind the unsuspecting 18 and put his hands against her back.

"Final Flash!" He shouted, unleashing a massive blast of ki that forced 18 forward before she forcibly stopped herself. Vegeta continued to push energy into the blast until 18 shot straight upward, flying behind Vegeta and kicking him in the back of the head. Vegeta flew a few feet and fell to the ground, but quickly turned around and looked up at the Android whose shirt and bra had been so badly damaged in the back that they had fallen off on the front. Vegeta was too focused to notice 18's lack of a shirt and quickly blasted another powerful energy beam at her chest, causing her to block it with her gloved hand and continue to walk towards him.

"You ruined my favorite shirt, Vegeta." She claimed, kneeling down and picking him up by his hair "Now I'll ruin you." Her fist quickly shot through Vegeta's stomach, piercing his body all the way through, causing blood to splatter all over the ground behind him and all over 18's body and face. Vegeta coughed blood once as he reached his hand toward the Android, raising his middle finger at her before he coughed once more and released his hold on life.

Yamcha looked away from Vegeta's dead body and attempted to get back on his feet, only to be met with an elbow to the back. He shouted out in pain as he landed on the ground, looking over to Tien who seemed to have fallen into unconsciousness. Yamcha looked over at 18 who walked into his frame of view; she leaned down beside Tien and shook her head.

"Hey sis, why do you get to have all the fun?" 17 asked, walking up beside her. She merely laughed as she placed her hand on Tien's throat, using her hand as a knife as she quickly slashed his throat, causing Tien to wake up and attempt to stop his wound from bleeding. Yamcha cried out and reached his hand out for his friend, but Tien gasped for air once and was already dead. Tears fell from Yamcha's face as he looked at his fallen comrade.

"You bastards!" Yamcha screamed out, resulting in a swift kick from 17.

"Shut it before I change my mind about letting you live." The Android picked Yamcha up by the collar of his shirt and threw him to the ground with his back up. "You got to cut him last time sis, now it's my turn to leave a mark. Throw me the weapon." He ordered. Yamcha could hear 18 walk away and then back, she was holding some kind of sack, and out she pulled something Yamcha hadn't seen in a long time. "Recognize this?" 17 asked, taking the blade from 18. Yamcha didn't say a word, he wouldn't play their games.

"We found that where you ditched it all those years ago." 18 announced.

"We thought it would be nice to see the reunion." 17 said as he placed the sword against Yamcha's throat. He laughed when he saw Yamcha wince and lifted the sword from his throat, placing it on his chest instead. Yamcha looked down at the sword as 17 swiftly cut across Yamcha's chest, leaving a deep gash that spewed blood all over 17. Yamcha screamed out in pain as he bled, trying to cover it with his arms to stop the bleeding. 17 rose to his feet and threw the sword next to Scar, shaking his head in disappointment.

"You cut too deep; he's going to die now." 18 scolded. 17 merely shrugged off her words.

"If he can't survive that then he doesn't deserve to live." The both of them blasted off, leaving Yamcha to his fate.

* * *

"That's…" Goku couldn't finish his words; his mind was filled with too much sorrow to say them.

"Don't worry, Goku, I've had a lot of time to deal with their deaths." Scar claimed, finishing off his second cigarette and placing it in the ash tray.

"How did you survive?" The Saiyan asked, astounded that Scar was able to live through such a horrible injury.

Scar sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know, dumb luck?" he lifted himself up off the rail and into a standing position "truth be told I should have died right there, maybe it was my family that kept me going, who knows." Scar looked over to the city once more before he turned and sat on a chair on the balcony "I lost a lot of blood, I cauterized the wound after I started thinking straight, but by that time I was already pretty woozy. My orange gi was so blood drenched that I had to tear it off after I woke from a long, long nap." Scar's head tilted downward "I didn't have enough strength to fly, but I still grabbed the sword for some reason. I also took Tien's belt and Vegeta's glove; I wanted them to be remembered somehow."

Goku nodded and looked back over to West City, noticing a couple with a child happily playing in a park area. "I'm glad you're alive, without you… I don't want to think about it." Goku gulped, watching as the father threw his son a ball.

"The worst part… I don't care to explain." Scar said, placing his hands over his head. "Whenever I think about it I-" He breathed heavily and his heart began to race "-I just can't do it."

"It's ok, Yamcha, I understand." Goku said, placing his hand on Scar's shoulder.

"Thank you Goku, I've said all I can, I tried to gather the courage, but it hurts too much to think about the rest." Scar explained, shaking his head "maybe I'll have the strength later." Goku nodded and released his hand from Scar's shoulder.

"What do you plan to do?" The Saiyan asked as he eyed Scar in curiosity "have you destroyed the time machine yet?"

Scar nodded and picked a remote from his pocket, holding it in his hand rather gingerly "This thing is useless now, but it's all I have left of her." Tears began to fall from Scar's eyes as he thought about his wife "Goku… it was just a few days ago to me…" Goku's eyes displayed confusion at Scar's words, not knowing exactly what he meant. "They found us, I don't know how but… She told me to run, to leave her, to do what we planned to do." He wiped the tears from his eyes and put the remote back in his pocket "She gave her life for you, all of you."

"And I won't soon forget that." Goku assured in a solemn tone.

"You'd better not." Scar forcefully said as he wiped the last of the moisture off of his cheek. "I have some things I need to do before I train Tien, Krillin and… Yamcha." Scar explained, lifting himself from his seat.

"Where are you going?" The Saiyan questioned. Scar sighed and shook his head.

"I have people to visit, things to pick up." He began to walk towards balcony, grabbing onto the railing with his hand "I'm going to make sure you're all ready for the Androids, I promise." Scar jumped over the railing and began to fly away before he turned back to Goku, smiling back at him much as Goku had done for him before he died in his timeline.

* * *

The Saiyan went downstairs to meet with his other friends who were all in the middle of a group training session. Tien, Yamcha and Krillin were sparring, but all stopped when they saw Goku walk into the vast training room.

"Hey there Goku, care to spar?" a very sweaty Yamcha suggested, wiping sweat from his forehead. Goku noticed a gravity change as he entered the room, it was rather heavy, but nothing he couldn't easily handle.

"Hah, you call that sparring?" Vegeta said over in a corner of the room, his shirt was off and he was kicking and punching in the air rapidly.

"You could join us you know." Krillin shouted over to the stubborn Saiyan, who grunted and continued his solo training method. The short man turned back to his friend and sighed "He's been training in here since yesterday, said something about Ginyu being dead."

"As long as he isn't hurting anyone." Goku said, eyeing Vegeta suspiciously "I can't spar today, but I am going to need to train with you guys sometime."

Vegeta stopped his training when he heard Goku's words. "Training with these maggots would be like flicking a fly away from your face, Kakarot." Vegeta exclaimed, grabbing a towel and wiping the sweat from his brow "why not show me what you're made of?" He took a drink of water and then threw it on the ground, his aura exploding with power as he charged himself up.

Goku walked past Krillin and Tien, both of whom attempted to say something but stopped themselves.

"I bet even as a super Saiyan I can defeat you." Vegeta boasted, clenching his hands tightly into fists.

"Give it your best shot." Goku ordered, instantly transforming into his powerful super Saiyan state. Vegeta rushed up to Goku and threw a punch, but Goku caught it midway to collision, and then caught the next one that Vegeta threw. The smaller Saiyan was stuck, so he used his legs to kick Goku in the stomach as hard as he could. Goku didn't budge an inch.

"What the hell?!" Vegeta shouted, both his fists being released, allowing him to back away from Goku. "So it is how they said." He calmed himself and turned around, instantly beginning his training again. Goku powered down and shook his head in confusion.

"What was that about?" Goku wondered as he turned around to face his friends.

"He's just an arrogant prick." Yamcha pointed out, taking a swig of water out of his bottle.

"So what do you plan to do Goku?" Tien asked his friend. Goku looked over to Vegeta and then back to his friends. "I'll come back here sometime; probably a lot actually, does Dr. Brief have any other gravity rooms?" All three of them nodded back.

"There's two, including this one." Krillin said "Jeice and his guys are taking up the other one, so that's why Vegeta is in here with us."

"They don't seem all that upset about their Captain being dead." The three eyed human said, wondering why they appeared to have moved on so quickly.

"I still don't trust em'" Yamcha noted, turning to look at Vegeta "him either."

"Don't worry about it Yamcha, you're all stronger than them anyway." Goku assured, beginning to walk towards the door. "Just don't stop training alright? I have a feeling that we're gonna be in for a lot more trouble once the Androids are dealt with."

* * *

Scar stood in the exact spot he had just two days ago. Their lab was a few miles away, but now it was just an unused cave. The man bent down and placed his hand on the Earth where she had died, tears falling to the ground, darkening spots around his hand. He remembered her screams, he heard them as he fled, and he knew that she died in pain and that there was nothing he could do to save her. He almost considered killing himself as he had gotten to the lab, but held off, knowing that Bulma had such high hopes for when they would travel back to the past together. It was a miracle his machine even worked, she hadn't tested it before and so she had no idea if her calculations were correct, but Scar was thankful now that it had worked, for now he could save everyone in the past from the same horrible fate his friends and family had encountered.

He lifted himself from the dirt and used a cloth to wipe his tears, placing it back into his belt once they were all dried. Scar sighed and began to walk to the cave at a slow pace, hoping that somehow he'd wake up and find himself back in their bed again. He thought back to Tien, Krillin, Vegeta, Goku. All had made sacrifices for him, all had died to protect the ones they cared about, and all of them deserved a better life now than they had before. Their faces all flashed before his eyes; Goku's smile, Tien's pained expression as he gasped for life, Krillin's frightened face as he ordered them to move, and even Vegeta's defiant smirk as he gave Android 18 one last reason to hate him. Gon was still out there, he hadn't been killed, but he had split from the group the day that Vegeta and Tien had died, and Scar was never able to find him after that. He hoped that wherever the Namekian was that he had found a group to look after and help, and that the Androids wouldn't be able to find him.

As Scar made it to the cave that he and Bulma had stayed in for so many years, he pictured a sturdy door where the mouth was, but of course that hadn't been built. He walked in and lit up the area with a flashlight he had brought. There were no animals in the cave that he could tell, but it was a relatively small cave and he could get out quickly if he could tell that he was disturbing any families of animals. He stepped into the room that he recognized as Bulma's workshop, where she held the two time machines. She had created an extra one for herself, as she was concerned about two people traveling together in the same ship. Scar turned around and watched as his mind created a ghost image of himself, running from the entrance of the room to where the ships were being held. He gasped as he saw himself shoot a beam of ki through the engine of the second time machine, effectively rendering it useless. He hopped onto the one that remained and pressed a few buttons, sending him back to just moments before King Cold had shown up on Earth.

He sighed and knelt to the ground, digging his hand into the ground and pulling out some dirt. He continued to dig until he had created a decent sized hole; he wiped his hands off and grabbed the pouch from his belt, digging out his son's favorite toy.

Scar gulped as he stared at the plaything, it had grown tattered in the years since his son had stopped playing with it. There was no possible way he could describe the feeling inside of him as he gently placed the toy into the hole, a single tear streaming down his face. The second item he grabbed was the remote to his time machine, he gulped and placed it into the hole next to Goku's toy, pausing before his hand let go in a moment of hesitation. He released it from his grip and dug around the sack for one last item, the photo he had shown Goku the night before. He pulled it out backwards so he didn't have to look at his sons face, as if somehow Scar felt that even so much as looking at it would cause him to break down into an unrecoverable depression. He closed his eyes and turned the photo over, slowly beginning to open them in order to finally face what he had been hiding from ever since his son was killed.

He dropped the photo and fell back on his haunches after finally viewing the picture, all of them standing together, looking happy as the camera took what was possibly the only indication that his version of Bulma and his son Goku ever existed. He cried for a moment uncontrollably, trying to stop for a moment to take another look at the picture. He scooped it up in his hand and took one last, long look at it before placing it in the hole with the other items.

"Goodbye Bulma, goodbye… Goku…" Scar said aloud, lifting himself to his feet after shoveling the dirt back onto the hole, marking where he had dug by placing a single ring in the center of the hole, the same ring that he had worn from when he and Bulma had a mock wedding. He didn't care if it wasn't an official marriage; for all intents and purposes she was his wife. "I'll come back and visit once this world is safe." He assured, wiping the tears from his face "hopefully I won't dwell on the past now…" He exited the cave and went on his way.

There the items sat; a grave for a destroyed family.

* * *

**This concludes The History of Yamcha. While not all of his story has yet been told, perhaps more will come to light as the years go on, or perhaps his story will fade into obscurity, only time will tell. Will Scar's warning be enough to push the fighters to defeat the Androids? Stay tuned and find out on _Piccolo's Choice_!**

* * *

**Hey everyone, Saucemonkey here to say that I hope you all really enjoyed this special! I'm glad to have finally gotten it out and to now be working on the main chapters so we can start moving forward with the plot! As promised I will be doing a Q and A with some of the questions that you have all been asking me since Chapter 33. (Some of these are from a while ago.)**

**Q:** I don't fully understand why the senzu beans were ever gone. Gero could never have known about Korin and I doubt his DNA collector would have cared much for Yajirobe, so why did the plant die?

**A:** I hinted at this before, but in Scar's timeline Piccolo killed Korin and Yajirobe, ensuring that only Piccolo had the last of the Senzu Beans.

**Q:** Is the heart virus going to be in this fanfic?

**A:** No, I'm a firm believer that Goku had contracted the virus in space, and since Namekian biology is vastly different from Saiyan's, I doubt Piccolo would have gotten it at all. So like I said, no heart virus.

**Q:** Will we get learn about Piccolo's time between Namek and his return to Earth? Since he managed to learn Instant Transmission and brought Gon along to heal I assumed he'd been mellowed the tiniest bit by Gohan's sacrifice and maybe Nail's influence within him but his words and actions made me think otherwise! Did he A) torture the secret to Instant Transmission out of some poor Yardrats; B) pretend he was good (which he maybe found worryingly too easy) to get on their good side and be taught it or C) just learn it himself from observation as with the Kienzan?

**A:** This question will definitely be answered in the future, I promise you all.

**Q:** with Kami not around for much longer will Gohan keep his visions?

**A:** No, the visions were a last ditch effort and every time that Gohan had them they were being induced by Kami himself (except for the one of Chi-Chi in the Namekian hut in chapter 21.)

**Q:** Did Goku transform into a ASSJ, or SSJ2?

**A:** Not sure where you're getting that from, but no, he's just a regular SSJ right now.

**Q:** Is scar's son a human or half saiyan?

**A:** I don't mean to be rude but really? Yamcha = Human, Bulma = Human. So therefore, Yamcha + Bulma = Human child. Simple enough?

**Q:** Cell is going to show up 2 years after Goku leaves to train Uub, should he be born, I.e 786 is when cell shows up. your thoughts?

**A:** Can't say too much on this, really, but I can assure you that Cell will be showing up soon after the Androids. Nuff said.

**Q:** So, the "old man with a wrinkled face" is Yamcha?

**A:** Sorry, didn't make this very clear, but that's actually Dr. Gero.

* * *

**Now that we've gone through that, I'd like to tell you all about a fantastic fic being written by one of my friend, Ledgic, called The Majin Legacy. In this alternate universe story, Goku tries to fight Kid Buu in his super Saiyan 3 form and kills him without using the spirit bomb, but in the process he himself dies from exhaustion. This will be an Uub centric fic, with Vegeta being the main character for most of the first part of the fic. I'm actually the main editor for this story, and have been given permission to put a short piece of his latest chapter up here for you all to read! Enjoy:**

_Vegeta continued to cup his hand on his left shoulder in pain. Though he would_

_never admit it, even to himself, deep down Vegeta was afraid. Afraid of never being able to see Bulma and Trunks ever again. 'Goodbye, Bulma... Trunks... And you, Kakarot." Vegeta closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate._

_Suddenly, Kakarot appeared in front of him, his hands cupped tightly to his sides. "Sorry to take your turn, Vegeta. But hey, you did awesome. I'll take it from here." he said warmly._

_"Huh?" Kid Buu noticed the warrior._

_"Kakarot? Are you-" he began before being cut off._

_"Kamehameha!" A bright azure wave headed for Kid Buu._

_"Ha!" The young Majin shot his beam as well._

* * *

**Don't just take it from me, go and check it out, it's fantastic! One last thing, the DBM2 project that I've been talking about for a while is finally voting on certain fics that have been submitted to take the spot of the few remaining universes left empty, including:**

Appule's Insurrection by Pointer39

The Earthling Chronicles by FinalFlashX

Turles' Triumph by daughterofrisingsun

Satanball by Bakkasama

Dragonball Z Alternate Universe: Vegeta's Rebellion by Cokusan

Legend of Bardock by Vegito73

Sins of the Father by Super Vegetarott (formerly known as King Kakarotto)

**Take a look at them if you want, and if you have any suggestions of your own post it in a review and I'll ask my friends in the DBM community to take a look!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	39. Chapter 34: Training

**Chapter 34: Training**

The Demon King returned to his former cave home where he had told Gohan to stay the night before. The morning sun had risen long ago, and Gohan was already doing his daily meditations as Piccolo had taught him before they left for Namek. The Saibamen Trokar was in the midst of his own training, or what little he could do with no training partner anymore, since Skriatch hadn't been seen or heard from in a long while. As soon as Piccolo touched down at the mouth of the cave, Trokar stopped his midair kicks and ran over to Gohan, placing a hand on his back.

"Master returned." Trokar explained, moving forward slightly to see if Gohan's eyes had opened. The boy grunted and lowered his body to the ground, opening his eyes to see his master standing with his arms crossed one a few feet away.

"Hello, master." The boy greeted, holding back the malice in his voice. Ever since the day before he had tried to hold in all of his resentment of Piccolo for not allowing him to kill Goku when he had the chance, even after telling him that he _could _when Goku would come to the lookout. Now the bastard was still out there, and Gohan wanted nothing more than to wipe him off the face of the Earth.

Piccolo walked past Gohan as the boy stood up on his two feet, making his way towards the back of the cave where he reached towards his back and took grip of Kami's cane, dropping it on the ground in front of his and turning around.

"I'm whole, once more." Piccolo grinned and clenched his fists. The young half Saiyan turned around to meet eyes with his master "I'm stronger than I've ever been before, far stronger than Goku, far stronger than Cold and Frieza." He stopped a moment and laughed, closing his eyes and throwing his hands to his sides with his palms open, generating concentrated electricity in both palms while chillingly chuckling all the while. "Don't you see Gohan? I could kill them all in a minute if I wanted!" He released the electricity and sighed "but I can't, not yet, even after so long I must wait to slaughter them."

"Why should we wait?" Gohan asked, powering up into his super Saiyan state "We can handle anything that comes our way!" The boy's grin was unsettling to the Saibamen, who was more used to the timid boy he had grown to care about.

Piccolo smiled. This new development of the boy's aggressive tendencies were proving to be quite entertaining, and would no doubt serve his ends in the future. "I take no chances, Gohan."

"Let me kill Goku then, please Master!" Gohan shouted, his aura flaring up "I've waited so-" Gohan's cheek indented as Piccolo instantly teleported to the boy and swatted him away like a fly. Gohan crashed into the side of the cave and fell to the ground, lifting himself up slightly before Piccolo grabbed him by his hair and lifted him up so that he was eye level with his protégé.

"You cocky, arrogant fool." The evil Namekian whispered to Gohan, whose hair returned to its normal black hue. His eyes remained clenched shut, weary of another assault from his master. "I don't know the full extent of this transformation you've gained, but I'm still stronger than you." Piccolo dropped the boy and stepped back, watching as Gohan knelt down in both pain and fear. "What I say goes, and you are not to lay a finger on Goku, Tien, Yamcha, or anyone who could help us if what the one from the future says is correct. Understood?"

Gohan tilted his head up and down, although Piccolo couldn't see his facial expressions.

"Get up and look me in the eye, don't make me finish the job." The boy reluctantly began to rise to his feet, showing his battered face and bloodied nose. "I have a few things that need to be done, so stay here." He walked over to the mouth of the cave before stopping and turning around to say a few more words "all of the training that I've given you before will be absolutely nothing compared to what I have planned for you in the future." Piccolo grinned and turned back around "sleep, train, meditate, do whatever you need to do. These next three years will be the worst of your life." The Namekian raised his index and middle finger to his forehead and disappeared, leaving Gohan behind to try and figure out how to best spend his last moments of freedom.

The boy sulked over to where Trokar had made a makeshift bed for him the night before and crashed onto his side, tears pouring down his face. His Saibamen friend rushed to his side and placed his clawed hand on Gohan's shoulder, causing the boy to turn and lift himself up by his arm. The green alien gulped and looked down at the ground for a moment before he embraced Gohan in a hug.

Gohan's eyes widened as he felt the strangely warm embrace of the Saibamen, returning the hug with his free arm.

"Gohan… I miss you." Trokar said, his voice soft and sweet. "People hug in blue haired woman's house when they're sad, so I hug you, Gohan." Upon hearing his words, the half Saiyan laughed lightly and began to cry harder, clutching his friend tightly.

Friendship, it seemed, had not forsaken the boy.

* * *

"Look, I don't care if it _is _well written; I'm not reading your story about how you single handedly defeated Vegeta!" Korin shouted to the fat samurai, Yajirobe, as he paced around his own lookout.

"C'mon Korin, you know you want to read about how badass I am!" Yajirobe shouted, holding up a few pages he had painstakingly written after a few long months of boredom.

Korin looked over the side of his tower and growled, obviously more annoyed than anything "How can you be talking about that at a time like this?!" Korin shouted after turning to face Yajirobe, who stepped back with a look of concern on his face.

"Woah, sorry, I just wanted to show you my story, I didn't think you hated books." The samurai said.

"First of all, five pages isn't a book" Korin explained, looking back over the side of the tower "and second, Piccolo absorbed Kami last night and killed Mr. Popo. You're damned story is going to have to wait."

Yajirobe sighed and looked over the first page of his story again, then he lowered it and screamed as he witnessed Piccolo right in front of his face.

"Wh-what the hell!?" Yajirobe shouted as Piccolo snatched the give pages out of his hand, crumpling them and incinerating them with a small blast of energy. "Th-that was just mean!"

Piccolo smirked as Yajirobe ran and hid behind a pillar. Korin sighed and turned to face the one who had effectively eliminated two of his closest friends.

"Here to do me in too, Demon King?" Korin asked in the most sarcastic voice he could muster.

"You're not worth my time." Piccolo said, dumping the ashes of Yajirobe's story on the ground. "I'm here to make a deal with you, cat." Korin sighed and looked to the ground.

"Like I have a choice." The old cat said, looking back up to Piccolo as the Namekian looked around the tower.

"The beans, I want half of every single one of them that you create over the next three years." Piccolo ordered. "What you do with the others doesn't matter, have fatass over there eat them for all I care." He gestured towards the pillar that Yajirobe hid behind.

Korin turned back around and began to pace, the last thing he wanted to do was help this monster, but it seemed that now that he didn't have much of a choice. If Korin died, the senzu beans would never be able to be cultivated, and Goku and his friends would desperately need them in the battle ahead. His hands were tied, but at least Piccolo was only asking for half of them.

"Fine, I'll agree to your damn request." Korin grumbled as he ceased his pacing to face the Namekian.

"Excellent." Piccolo said, grinning as he looked over into the pot where Korin kept all of the senzu beans that had fully matured. "Have that pathetic weakling bring me a batch every three months." Piccolo gestured over towards Yajirobe once more, reaching his hand into the pot and grabbing three of the beans out of the pot, leaving two.

"I agreed to your deal; now get off of my tower." Korin ordered in distain.

"No need for such a tone with me, kitty" Piccolo said in a sarcastic tone, rushing right up to Korin and leaning his face in so that it was mere centimeters away from the anthropomorphic cat. Korin didn't move a single inch. Upon seeing his fearlessness, Piccolo backed away "fearless as always, Korin."

"I would tell you to go to hell, but I have a feeling you'd enjoy it there." The cat remarked as Piccolo lifted his fingers to his forehead.

He grinned and teleported away instantly.

After a few moments, Yajirobe poked his head out from behind the pillar and stared at his friend, still frozen in place.

"Wow, Korin, I thought for sure that he was gonna kill you." The samurai said, walking out from behind the pillar. "He didn't have to destroy my story though…"

"Oh shut up about your story!" Korin shouted.

* * *

A few weeks passed without incident, Gohan's training had begun, and Piccolo had meant every word he said to the boy. Harsh training every single day for eighteen hours, sometimes without a break. Piccolo would allow the boy only 5 or 6 hours of sleep, and after he woke up it was straight back to training after a quick breakfast. The Namekian took little notice of Trokar in this time, who had spent his time attempting to train on his own. However, it had proven ineffective as he truly did need a sparring partner in order to increase his skills. The Saibamen planned to one day go out and look for Skriatch, but feared that leaving Gohan alone with Piccolo would cause the boy too much stress and so he had decided to stay.

Gohan was adjusting well to the new training regiment, he wasn't able to keep up with Piccolo's level of power, but his master had lowered himself to Gohan's level so that he could hone his protégé's skills. The boy could take a rough beating, Piccolo had found that out on several occasions when he decided to use his full strength, but only once did he have to feed Gohan a senzu bean when he had nearly Gohan's neck. From then on he decided to not use as much force, which relieved both Gohan and Trokar.

Piccolo wasn't pleased, however. He had so much newfound power and wasn't able to use it with Gohan, whose power had risen significantly with the advent of the super Saiyan form, but not enough to pose a challenge to the Demon King. He wanted to fight someone worthy of his time, someone who could give him a thrill of a battle, but only once so that he could get it out of his system. While Gohan slept he divided his power through the multiform technique and battled against himself, but the drop in power was significant, and when he tried using the multiform against Gohan the boy was able to overpower the clone with ease.

However, they had made significant progress in just a few weeks, and Piccolo found some solace in that. He honed his techniques as often as he could; trying to find a way to utilize the instant transmission technique he had picked on Yardrat to its fullest extent.

On another part of the planet, the fighters living in the Capsule Corp. building were also making progress. Scar had yet to return despite his promise of only being gone for a week, but in the meantime Yamcha, Tien, Krillin and even Chiaotzu were all fighting well in high gravity, each of them taking turns to hone their skills in the chamber. Dr. Brief had promised that he would make a chamber for each fighter, and he had already made progress on the first one, but it had only been a short time and there were a lot of things on the good doctor's mind.

Vegeta had reluctantly started training with the Ginyu force; or rather Team Jeice as the red alien had begun calling it, after he had found the human's training methods to be too conservative. It was often the four of them against him, and he would usually end up easily defeating them unless Guldo got lucky with his time stopping powers. Though they had all been training together for a while, the animosity of the three members of Team Jeice that Vegeta had known in his stint in space had stayed, and Guldo, Cui and Jeice were still not happy that Vegeta was so much stronger than them when they had each been superior to him at one point.

Vegeta spent the time that he wasn't training attempting to figure out why it was that Kakarot and his brat of a son were able to achieve the legendary state of super Saiyan, while he himself could not. The prince of a race of proud warriors was pathetically weak compared to a low class warrior and his young child, which made him rather pathetic in his own eyes. The prince would often fly out into a deserted wasteland and release his frustration into a mountain side; everyone could tell when Vegeta was having a bad day if they heard entire mountains crumbling.

In his room one night, in a deep sleep, Vegeta dreamed of his battle with Kakarot. In his Oozaru state he had easily defeated both Goku _and _Piccolo, who were no match for the forms size and power. The Saiyan woke immediately from the dream when the fat samurai cut off his tail. He sat up on the bed, covering his face with his hands but quickly lowered them when he felt something strange around his waist. He threw the covers away to reveal that his tail had re-grown while he slept and wrapped itself around his waist, surprising him greatly as he had no idea if the tail would grow back or not.

The next morning he pondered to himself what the dream had meant.

'Having a tail has always been a trademark of a great warrior, yet Kakarot and his son are stronger than me and have no tail to speak of.' Vegeta thought as he washed himself in the shower. 'Perhaps their tail held them back…'

Vegeta turned the knobs to the shower to turn it off and stepped out, grabbing a towel and drying his hair. "That's preposterous." He said aloud, walking in front of the mirror and looking at himself "No self respecting Saiyan would be caught dead without their tail!" He looked behind and watched as his tail wrapped itself around his waist. 'Maybe I've been going about this the wrong way…' The prince thought, un curling his tail and holding it with his left hand 'maybe it's genetic…' He sighed and released his tail, placing both hands on the sink and looking down at the drain "Perhaps I was never meant to be a super Saiyan." He solemnly suggested to himself. He looked back up to the mirror and watched himself for a moment before his facial expression changed to that of a scowl. "If I'm not a super Saiyan, then I need to be _better _than a super Saiyan!"

Vegeta left the bathroom and equipped his Saiyan armor, not bothering to hide his tail at all. He walked over to the window and took a brief look outside, it was raining, but that didn't bother Vegeta. "I've got to find out when the next full moon is." He told himself "or else find a better way to get enough moonlight to transform." Truth be told, the Saiyan _did _have a way to create an artificial moon, but the technique was very tiring and he much preferred not to use it. 'That woman…' Vegeta pictured Bulma in his head 'she and that egghead scientist's father of hers might be able to come up with something.' He grunted and shook his head, not wanting to accept help from mere humans. "I'll be damned if I have to ask any of those fools for aide." Vegeta was about to open the door out of his room when his mind pictured Kakarot and his child in their super Saiyan states.

"Grrr…" Vegeta growled, crushing the doorknob in his hand. He stood in place for a moment before finally resigning. 'Fine, but only because the prince of all Saiyans should be stronger than a low class cur.'

Vegeta made his way down to where he usually trained with Jeice and his lackeys, not surprised that they hadn't shown up yet for their scheduled spar. The prince secretly enjoyed fighting them, but only because he of the fact that he hated Jeice, Cui _and _Guldo, and relished that he was able to beat them to a pulp every single day. He didn't care about the other member, she was a weakling and wasn't worth his time anyway.

After training alone for about an hour in intense gravity, Vegeta exited the room and looked around for a sign of them.

"Slackers." Vegeta scolded, remembering his plan to talk to Bulma and her father. As he was about to leave, he heard a familiar yet annoying voice calling to him from across the room.

"Where do you think you're going Vegeta?" The prince turned around and grimaced as he saw Cui walking towards him with Jeice, Guldo and Fiore right behind.

"I was waiting for someone worth fighting to show up, but I guess there isn't anyone in this building strong enough to take me." Vegeta scathingly remarked.

"Can it ya Saiyan bastard." Jeice shouted, looking down at Vegeta's waist and noticing his tail "is that your tail or are you just happy to see us?" The others chuckled at Jeice's joke, causing Vegeta to be angered slightly.

"If you really want it, I can demolish you all like I did yesterday." Vegeta boasted, grinning at the red alien.

"Bring it on, you just got lucky!" Jeice rebutted. The others in the group exchanged worried glances as Jeice led them into to gravity chamber, followed by Vegeta.

When they were all in the room the door slid shut, Jeice punched in some numbers on the pad in the middle of the room and set the gravity level to make the fight more difficult. Only Guldo and Fiore felt the shift in weight, as Jeice, Cui and Vegeta had trained enough that they could handle a higher level if they wanted to. The Saiyan stood opposite of the four fighters, only two of them seemed to really want to battle at this point.

"Ah…" Fiore began, lifting her hand up "I don't think I want to get beaten up again today." She remarked, looking over to a chuckling Vegeta and back to Jeice.

"Ahh, so you're the smart one of the group?" Vegeta claimed, crossing his arms as Fiore lowered her right one.

Jeice growled and stepped forward with his right leg "You're too cocky, you know that Vegeta?" He calmed down and looked over to Fiore with a scowl "and you, shut it, we're already one man short as it is." Fiore grumbled and reluctantly took up a fighting stance. Jeice returned his gaze to the prince and flipped his hair in front of his body. "Prepare yourself for…" He then flipped his hair behind his head, but before finishing his intro Vegeta rushed up and rammed his fist into Jeice's chin, sending him flying to the other side of the room and crashing against the wall and to the ground. The three other fighters backed away and looked at Vegeta in shock and confusion.

The prince looked around at them and shrugged "I got tired of listening to that idiot the first ten times."

"_You fucker!_" Jeice shouted, lifting himself from the ground and rushing at Vegeta, who dodged to the right of the red aliens punch and deflected Cui's kick with his right arm. Guldo jumped away from Vegeta and began to hold his breath, but Vegeta was already rushing away and managed to evade Guldo's area of effect.

The Saiyan threw a small ki attack at Guldo, who turned as quickly as he could and was blasted straight in the chest, sending him flying a few feet and falling on his back. Cui ran up to Vegeta and threw a right hook that was blocked by the Saiyans left arm, Jeice managed to catch Vegeta off guard and kick him in his right side, but that only caused Vegeta to fly a few feet away. Vegeta purposefully ducked into a ball and kicked the wall as soon as he neared it, rocketing himself towards Cui and ramming his shoulder into the purple aliens guarding forearms. Vegeta stopped himself midair as Cui was sent skidding backwards, Jeice tossed a few ki attacks Vegeta's way that were all easily deflected, but it allowed Guldo and Cui time to recover. Fiore was still in the exact same place she was before, either out of fear or out of spite for Jeice.

"Get moving!" The red alien shouted towards Fiore, who snapped to attention and nodded back. Vegeta threw a ball of ki at Jeice and rushed back at Cui, throwing a punch that Cui managed to narrowly dodge. Jeice blocked the ki attack and rushed towards Vegeta, as did Fiore. Vegeta twisted his body around midair and kicked Cui into the wall, blocking Fiore's kick with his arms as he landed back on his feet. Jeice came in quickly and threw a flurry of punches at the Saiyan which were all easily deflected. Cui joined with a flurry of punches as well, but Vegeta was still able to block everything that they threw at him.

Guldo merely trying to follow the battle when Fiore somehow landed a punch on Vegeta's back, but it did so little damage that Vegeta barely noticed. The Saiyan shouted and his aura flared up, creating a shockwave that blew the three closes fighters away from him. Guldo took advantage of this and began to hold his breath, holding Vegeta in place with his powers.

"Take this!" Jeice shouted, slamming his fist in Vegeta's face. The Saiyan didn't budge, more because of Guldo's powers than anything, and so Jeice, Fiore and Cui began wailing on Vegeta as hard as they could, trying to do as much damage as possible before Guldo ran out of breath.

A few seconds later Guldo gasped for air, releasing an enraged Vegeta who kicked Cui straight in the face, sending him into the wall and nearly breaking his back. Fiore backed away as Vegeta threw a quick punch at Jeice, whose arms couldn't move fast enough and Vegeta's fist rammed right into his chest. Jeice coughed out saliva and flew straight to the floor, bouncing up from the ground and then landing once more.

Vegeta turned to Fiore who merely backed up to the wall and sat down with her arms around her legs. "This is stupid, I don't even know why I signed up to be on this team!" She shouted, closing her eyes and digging her head into her arms. Vegeta scoffed and looked at Guldo, who merely shook his head and sighed.

"You win again, Vegeta." Guldo announced, causing the Saiyan to ease up on his stance.

"You're damn right I do." The Saiyan prince gloated as he lowered himself to the ground.

Jeice and cui both moaned in pain as they got up, Cui seemed to be more severely hurt, but underneath the red aliens armor there was a massive bruise on his chest.

"Now if you don't mind, I have some business to attend to." Vegeta turned around and grabbed his training towel, wiping some beads of sweat off of his face.

"What, you don't want to boast about beating us for half an hour again?" Cui panted out, taking a seat on one of the benches on the side of the room.

The Saiyan laughed and shook his head "as much as I'd love to point out how much better I am than you, there's something far more important I need to do." Vegeta took a swig out of his water bottle and opened the door to the gravity room.

"Whatever you say, asshole." Jeice commented as the door slid shut. Vegeta threw the towel in a bin that had been placed by the room for dirtied clothing or cloth of any sort and then started to walk towards the room where Bulma and her father spent their time working.

As he walked into the room he was met with quizzical glances from the scientists, none of whom really knew who he was. It was rather easy to pinpoint Bulma from the rest of the scientists by her bright blue hair, which Vegeta noted as a ridiculous color for anyone to have their hair be. When he reached her, she was at a table with blueprints spread across it, analyzing something very deeply when she noticed that someone was standing next to her. She looked over expecting Yamcha, but jumped at the sight of Vegeta, who she wasn't used to seeing.

"Wh-what do you want?" Bulma said in surprise and shock.

"Learn some manners, woman." Vegeta said, crossing his arms "I'm here because I…" He stopped himself for a moment and looked away towards the table "I need your help." He mumbled, barely audible.

Bulma's right brow raised in intrigue. What could the arrogant prince of all Saiyans want out of an inventor? "What do you need help with?" She asked, turning her body to face Vegeta. He sighed and looked back up at her, surprised to find that she was more attractive than he originally thought.

"I…" He began, grabbing his tail "this re-grew last night, and I need to find a way to access moonlight whenever I want to transform."

Bulma didn't quite understand at first, and so Vegeta began to explain to her how his Oozaru form worked, and how in order to train for the arrival of the androids he needed the power of the form to be able to stand a chance. Bulma followed him quite well, and after listening to his proposal she had already hatched a plan for an invention. She attempted to explain it to Vegeta, but Vegeta coarsely claimed that he didn't care what it was or how it worked, just that she build it for him as soon as possible. Quickly after he had grown bored of Bulma's techno babble he left, leaving the blue haired women rather flustered. He was blunt and to the point, though, and Bulma decided that she would work on his request as soon as she was finished with her latest project.

* * *

A few days later, Scar was finally back in West City after two weeks of personal errands, his clothes were covered in dirt but otherwise he seemed fine. Tien had noticed his aura early in the morning while Yamcha, Chiaotzu and Krillin were still asleep, so he exited the building and stood outside the entrance. The sun still had yet to rise as Scar landed a few meters away from Tien, unraveling a red scarf from his head and tucking it into his belt.

"You've been gone a while." Tien pointed out, crossing his arms. "Where were you?"

Scar shook his head, smiling as he closed his eyes.

"I'm only back for a few minutes and you're already on my case." He laughed a bit, confusing Tien slightly "you never change, do you Tien?" Scar walked forward past his old friend but stopped before entering the building. "Come on, I'll explain when you're all up."

Scar sat down at the breakfast table as Tien went back into his room to wake the others. Krillin, Yamcha and Chiaotzu all stumbled through the hallways and down to the dining hall where they sat near Scar, who was already chowing down on some ham.

"You guys want some, it's really good." Scar said with his mouth full of meat. The others didn't say a single word. Scar gulped down the food and placed his fork back down on the plate, looking up at the four people around him. "Alright, alright, I get it, you guys want to know what I've been up to." Krillin and Yamcha both nodded, with Tien and Chiaotzu merely staring on.

"You told us you'd be back in a week; we've been pretty excited about training with you." Krillin explained, looking down at the meat on Scar's plate and realizing that he actually _was _hungry.

"Fair enough." Scar sighed and wiped his mouth with a napkin before explaining. "Truth is, I've been trying to find Dr. Gero's lab, the one where he's creating the androids." The others looked around the table at one another and then back to Scar.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Yamcha asked his future self "We could have helped you!"

Scar shook his head. "No, he's a brilliant man despite being evil; I doubted I'd actually be able to find where he's hiding."

"Then why look in the first place?" Krillin wondered aloud, still staring at the ham on Scar's plate. After taking a single look at Krillin, the scarred man pushed his plate over to the short warrior.

"I had to try, there were a few places I suspected he might be, but I couldn't find a trace." Scar explained, leaning forward to place a spare fork on the plate "It doesn't matter, right now we need to be training."

"You're right," Tien agreed "right after breakfast we'll start."

Scar nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Oh." A thought popped into his mind "Has Goku been here recently?"

Yamcha and Tien shook their heads "He hasn't been here since you left." Yamcha noted.

"Ah, well, no matter."

* * *

As the months past, everyone's training went rather well. Scar was able to teach the human's how to better handle the Kaio-Ken technique, while Bulma was close to finishing Vegeta's device. Gohan was making relatively small progress, something that Piccolo was almost frustrated over. During the first two month, Gohan's power had risen to great heights, but in the months after he was no longer able to make such strides. No matter how hard they trained, no matter how long, Gohan would only seem to get slightly more powerful. Piccolo had thought that perhaps it was because of the new form Gohan had attained, that it was a sort of plateau that was highly difficult to proceed past, and it was infuriating to him that he couldn't find a way to break past it to allow his student to attain greater levels of strength.

Gohan had been pondering this as well, he would often converse with Trokar after his training sessions and try to get another opinion, but due to his limited intelligence, the Saibamen was usually of no help.

On a particularly bad day, just hours before the sun was to rise, Gohan tried explaining his feelings to the Saibamen.

"I want to get stronger, Trokar, I really do." Gohan admitted, sitting down on his makeshift bed and taking a bite out of an apple.

The Saibamen looked away from the mouth of the cave to Gohan, nodding his head.

"I keep trying, but Picco-" The boy stopped himself, shaking his head "-master… just doesn't understand." He took one last bite out of the apple and tossed the core to Trokar.

"Master want what's best." Trokar claimed, catching the core and putting it in horizontally to chew on.

"I used to think so, but now…" Gohan sighed and leaned back on the bed "I had him, Trokar." The Saibamen looked toward the ground and shook his head. "I could have killed him, it would have been over." Gohan's hands clenched together tightly "He said I could, he told me that it was ok!" the cave nearly started shaking when Gohan began to express his anger. Realizing it was getting quickly out of hand he relaxed.

Gohan lifted himself back up out of the bed and walked over to a wall of the cave, pressing his hand lightly against it.

"I don't know if I can hold it." Gohan claimed, brushing his hand down the side of the wall "Its crushing me, I need to finish it." The boy clenched his hand into a fist, his arm shaking in rage. "How am I suppose to wait three years to kill that bastard!" He shouted, pulling his arm back.

As his fist collided with the wall of the cave the entire mountain shook, he left a rather noticeable crater on the wall, but it was nothing he hadn't done before. There were many other indents from his less controlled moments. Trokar had learned to not worry when Gohan did this, as it usually calmed him down when he was feeling great rage.

But not this time, Gohan only felt angrier now.

"You don't know what it's like Trokar, to have a father that cast you aside." The boy looked towards the ground and shook his head "I could have been stronger if he would have trained me, I could have killed Raditz, and I could have made sure none of this would have happened!" He fell to his knees. Tears began to roll down his face as he looked back up at the hole he had made in the wall. "I hate him." Gohan said quietly.

A few moments of silence past.

"I hate him!" Gohan said, quite a bit louder than before. "Why was he so stupid? Why didn't he see what I could be?!" Gohan fell to the ground with his palms outstretched, shaking his head as tears flowed to the ground.

Trokar walked up behind him and placed his hand on the boy's back.

Gohan shrugged it off and lifted himself back up to his feet.

"I thought I was done with this, with the tears." He said, wiping the wetness off of his cheeks "I can't show Piccolo how strong I am by crying."

He didn't say a single word as he walked back towards his bed. Trokar tried to talk, but the words just wouldn't come out, and before long it was clear that it was best to just let Gohan sleep it off.

* * *

Just outside the cave, Piccolo was sitting cross legged in the sky while meditating, listening closely to Gohan's words. It bothered him how much the boy seemed to be losing control, and how his power over the child was slipping. It was evident that if Gohan were still more powerful that Piccolo at this point, he might have already gone off and killed Goku without the Namekians approval. What he was creating wasn't a minion anymore; Gohan's rage issues coupled with the aggressive tendencies of the super Saiyan form were turning him into something else completely.

He still had control now, because of his superior strength, but how long would that last? If he trained Gohan and the boy surpassed his plateau, then what would happen to his strength? Would it skyrocket past the point of his own power? Piccolo had no idea, but he wasn't about to give up training the kid. He was a great bargaining chip if he needed something from Goku, and it stopped Goku from attacking on Namek when their powers were more equal.

Perhaps it would be best to try and teach Gohan technique and skill rather than focusing on pure power. Piccolo could deal with skill, but if the boy somehow grew to be even more powerful than himself, then the Namekian told himself that he would be forced to put Gohan down by any means. The boy was simply too unstable, but that was the price Piccolo paid for kidnapping a four year old and twisting their mind. And while the boy was by no means stupid, his rage could take over much more easily now that it ever had, as when training with the Namekian, the child would often lose his temper in the super Saiyan state.

Piccolo was torn, he was losing the most promising student he would ever have, but he didn't know exactly how to bring him back to his side. On one hand, Gohan needed someone to be there for him, but Piccolo despised the idea of trying to be a father figure to his arch enemy's son. On the other hand, if he didn't do something soon, it was readily apparent that either Gohan would lose his mind, or that Gohan would do something incredibly stupid and force Piccolo to take action against him.

It all seemed like more trouble than it was worth to Piccolo, who had already come to the logical conclusion that without the boy in his life, many more things would become vastly simple. He wouldn't have to worry about Gohan trying to fight him if the Namekian went too far. He wouldn't have to worry about the child interfering with his plans because of his rage issues. Piccolo could train himself far more efficiently without having to worry about Gohan's well being and strength as well, but for some reason Piccolo kept the boy around. He couldn't bring himself to end the life of the child whom he had brought to power in the first place.

Such sentimental nonsense was frightening to Piccolo, he felt as if he was losing his edge and was growing softer because of the boys influence. His father, King Piccolo would be disappointed to see his son's lack of ruthless cunning in a situation such as this, or so the Namekian told himself so often. He wasn't his father, however, and Piccolo didn't do things because he thought that he could appease his deceased father in some way. It was a horrible feeling, however, going against his father's predetermined wishes for him. It was true that Piccolo was made for the sole purpose of killing Goku, but even after that he felt the urge to kill others and take over the planet, and It was far easier for him to accept these urges than to push them back, as he had for the five years after Goku had defeated him in the Worlds Martial Arts tournament so many years ago.

Piccolo sighed and released himself from his meditative state, there was far too much on his mind right now, and meditating seemed only to make it worse. He hadn't killed a single person since Mr. Popo, and an urge was suddenly sweeping over him to take an innocent life. Normally he would push back these feelings, but tonight he felt particularly sadistic, as he had wanted to kill Gohan after the boy had failed to keep his temper in check. The Demon King reassured himself that after he killed a single person, the urge would subside and he could think more clearly.

He lifted his index and middle finger to his head and transported away.

_**In a cold, dark house in East City…**_

A faint noise could be heard within the room, but no one heard. The entire house was quiet, its residence ignorant of the presence of the intruder.

The daughter of two hard working parents slept quietly in her bed, moving her head slightly in adjustment. She was in a deep slumber, her dreams filled with pleasant images and her mind completely at ease.

On the opposite side of the room, blood red eyes stared menacingly through the darkness, unbeknownst to the young child who was facing the opposite direction.

The eyes stared at the child for a few moments, darting around the room a few times in some kind of inspection. Moonlight shown through the window only served to show a single portion of the owner of the red eyes, the tips of his brown shoes, while the rest of his body was covered in shadow.

He crept forward to the child, trying not to wake her as he slowly walked.

The suspense was everything; the thrill of the kill was only accentuated by the anticipation.

As he moved closer, the light through the window showed more and more of his body.

He stopped immediately as the child turned around in her bed. She was now facing him, but that was no problem as long as he stayed quiet.

Once again he began walking slowly towards the bed, careful not to make a single noise.

He stopped a mere six inches away from the bed, a sadistic grin growing on his face.

'Your parents won't like this when they wake up.' Piccolo thought to himself, raising his clawed hand into the air.

"What!?" Piccolo shouted quietly, noticing a familiar power signature n the distance. The noise woke the girl up, who looked up at the man for a moment before realizing what was happening. Piccolo immediately transmitted back to his cave to wake Gohan, leaving the girl in a panic back in her home.

* * *

**Who or what has Piccolo sensed on the horizon? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**Wow, everyone, over 200 reviews! It's great to know that everyone is still enjoying the story, and I'm thankful for each and every one of you that has stuck with it for so long! I have to thank the entire DBM community, everyone is so supportive and they keep me wanting to write!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	40. Chapter 35: Forced Alliance

**Chapter 35: Forced Alliance**

The silence of the night was broken by a lone aircraft; Bulma was piloting the machine while Vegeta sat next to her, arms crossed with an angry expression plastered on his face.

"I can fly, you know." Vegeta matter–of-factly told the blue haired women piloting the plane "I don't see why you insisted on taking me to the location."

Bulma shook her head and sighed,"I know how you are; you'd just find the nearest place you could and test it out there. I need to make sure you're only testing it at the site my father and I had marked down for this."

Vegeta scoffed and looked in his hand at the small container; he had looked at it earlier today and found that it contained a single, nearly invisible lens that one would put over their eyes. The doctor had told him that this was called a contact lens, and that many people on Earth wore them to increase their vision. The Saiyan was shown how to put it on, and was assured that it wouldn't bother his eye in the slightest.

"Whatever, as long as I get to test this out, I don't care where I am." Vegeta said, clenching the small container in his fist "Tell me, how does this 'lens' work again?"

"Well we knew you needed light that reflected off the moon, or what you called 'Blutz Waves' in order to transform." She paused a moment to make sure Vegeta was following "so my father and I found a way to imitate the 'Blutz Waves' and had a microscopic machine created and placed inside of the contact that can produce them in such a concentrated amount that you can't see them, but hopefully they'll still allow you to transform."

Vegeta nodded and smirked "You know, I almost regret trying to destroy this planet two years ago." The Saiyan said with a chuckle "At least there are a few intelligent humans on this pathetic rock." Bulma looked away for a moment to hide her smile. She honestly hadn't thought that Vegeta would do any harm if she sent him out on his own to test the device out, but she still enjoyed his company. As the months went by, Yamcha seemed to care more and more about training than he did about his girlfriend, and Bulma was having a rough time adjusting. Still, although she loved Yamcha dearly, she saw no problem in talking with the Saiyan.

"How nice of you" Bulma sarcastically remarked, turning her head back towards the front window "You're not as dumb as you look." She smirked, laughing when she heard Vegeta huff lightly.

As the two of them neared their destination, a beeping noise could be heard from the console of the ship. Bulma pressed a button and greeted the person on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" She scrunched her face in confusion, wondering who would need to be in contact with her at this hour.

"Bulma, I just wanted to tell you that there have been some strange sightings of… well now I'm not sure what it is." The voice of Dr. Brief came through a speaker "Would you have any idea about this?"

Bulma shook her head "No, I haven't heard about it until now." She looked over to Vegeta, who himself seemed to be in deep thought "Keep me posted, I'll be back as soon as I drop Vegeta off. We should be there in a little under a minute."

"Right, stay safe." Dr. Brief said, closing the transmission.

"What the hell was that about?" Vegeta wondered aloud "Something in space? An asteroid?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." Bulma attempted to convince herself. She spotted the area where she was to drop Vegeta off just a few seconds later. "Well, this is it Vegeta."

The Saiyan lifted himself from his seat and walked over to the sliding door of the ship, which Bulma pressed a button to open. After it had opened fully, she turned back and shouted to Vegeta.

"Don't cause any trouble!" Vegeta smirked and shook his head.

"I'll cause as much trouble as I damn well please." With that the Saiyan hopped out of the ship, descending to the ground at breakneck speeds. When he grew closer to the ground, Vegeta stopped himself slightly in the air and slowed his descent, turning his body around so that his boots made contact with the dirt.

Once he was firmly on the ground, Vegeta opened his hand and picked up the container with the other, gently opening the container that held the lens.

It was odd to him, that something so small could allow him to reach a far greater power. He wasn't in a position to complain, however, as he had finally gotten what he wanted for so long. Perhaps now he could be on equal footing with Kakarot or his son, only time would tell, as he hadn't seen or heard from Kakarot in many months.

Vegeta gently placed the lens in his eye, blinking a few times to make sure that it didn't bother him at all. It didn't, and so now Vegeta was fully ready to test whether this microscopic machine would work or not.

"Alright, so I just press this button on my belt…" Vegeta said aloud, reaching his hand to the small, nearly invisible button on his custom made belt that would send a wireless signal to the machine to start working. Before he reached the button, he jerked his head up towards the sky, his eyes wide open in surprise. "Wha- what the hell?" Vegeta turned around and faced the direction he felt the power coming from and powered up slightly.

This must have been what Bulma's father was talking about only a few minutes ago. The power was coming to Earth quickly, but Vegeta stopped worrying. He smirked slightly, he knew who was coming, and he wanted to be the first to greet them to the planet. The prince took off in the direction that he expected the aircraft to land, his laughter echoing in the distance.

* * *

"Gohan!" Piccolo shouted as he entered the cave, waking the boy up from his brief slumber. The Namekian quickly walked until he was only a few fee t away from the child, who had already snapped to attention.

Gohan was about to speak when he quizzically looked around the cave, as if he had sensed something. "Master, is that-"

The Namekian sighed, "If you can sense it already then there's no doubt Goku and his lackey's will be at the scene." Piccolo announced, looking over to the Saibamen that was curiously watching his two masters speak. "Gohan, stay here and don't even think about trying to find me." Gohan nearly sighed, but stopped himself "Trokar, you'll come with me." The Saibamen nodded and ran up next to Piccolo.

"I swear I won't attack anyone!" Gohan said, looking up at Piccolo with a childish expression. The Demon King's hand tensed up, he was about to strike the boy but used all of the willpower he could muster to stop himself.

Piccolo shook his head and placed his hand on Trokar's head "I can't take chances, stay here. Whoever this is, shouldn't be a problem."

Gohan reached his hand out slightly before Piccolo and Trokar vanished. As his hand lowered, he shook his head in disappointment and anger.

* * *

Back in the Capsule Corp. building, Tien was in a deep meditative state after having had a full day of intense individual training with Scar the previous day. Every other one of the fighters had fallen asleep, but that night Tien had found it difficult. Although now that he knew how powerful Piccolo had become, he had a hard time sleeping at all anymore. The whole situation seemed hopeless, but that only motivated him to train harder than he ever had before.

In the months since Scar had returned to the Capsule Corp. building, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin had made great strides in their training, and especially with the Kaio-Ken technique. After a month or so, Chiaotzu realized that he was only slowing the others down and decided to train on his own, and rather enjoyed spending time in the kitchen cooking with the Capsule Corp. chefs.

It had been a rough time for a lot of them, they weren't used to Scar's training techniques, and admittedly, Scar was having trouble adjusting to becoming a teacher himself. After the Androids had shown up, Scar had only trained by himself, and was now in a totally different position, one that he wasn't sure he could fill properly. He had visited master Roshi a few times in order to get some training tips and Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien didn't mind that he was a mediocre teacher, as long as he was able to further their knowledge of the Kaio-Ken.

There hadn't been a problem in a long while, not since Yamcha and Vegeta had nearly gotten into a fight when Yamcha had gotten suspicious that Vegeta might have been harboring feeling for Bulma. However, the three of them worked it out without violence, and now Tien was quite content with their situation. He had become vastly stronger than he had formerly been, not only in raw power, but in technique and skill as well. He was truly happy that he had such friends to help him, and knew that with the next few years of training they would be ready to take on whatever would try to harm them.

At Tien thought about all of these things, a nagging feeling popped up in the back of his mind. He wasn't able to extinguish the thought, and so he released himself from his meditative state only to have an intense feeling of dread come over his body.

Tien quickly ran into each of the sleeping fighters rooms, waking them up until finally Krillin, Yamcha, Chiaotzu and Scar had gathered outside of the Capsule Corp. building.

"You're all feeling the same thing I am, right?" Yamcha asked the others, who all nodded in agreement "How can that be possible?"

"I don't know, but we need to move fast." Tien said, his aura flaring up. "Do you know what's going on Scar?"

The scarred man shook his head "This never happened in my timeline, I have no clue what's happening right now."

"Maybe we should just let Piccolo deal with this, guys?" Krillin nervously declared "I mean, who knows what this guy is gonna be capable of when we meet him?"

"We can't do that, Krillin; we need to know what's going on." Tien explained, looking over to Chiaotzu "Stay here, contact me if anything goes wrong."

"Right!" the small human shouted, nodding his head "Please, stay safe you guys." Chiaotzu floated back into the building, swerving around Lod, who had just come running out of the building towards the fighters.

"What do you want, Lod?" Yamcha asked, he wasn't fond of the Saibamen's fascination with Bulma, but he still tolerated it to an extent.

Lod looked around at the four fighters and clenched his clawed hand into a fist. "Sensed danger..." He claimed, looking over to Scar "I'll help."

Scar looked at Tien, then back to the Saibamen, tilting his head in indecision before reluctantly agreeing "Fine, but don't take any chances." Scar added, walking over to that Saibamen and dropping his back towards Lod. "Climb up; it'll be faster if I carry you." The Saibamen hopped up onto Scar's back, attempting to get comfortable. Scar found Lod's grip and generally body shape to be a rather odd feeling, but that wouldn't stop him from bringing any extra help. He didn't want anything bad to happen to the fighters, and any and all help would be appreciated.

"I sure hope Goku shows up." Krillin added, powering up.

"He will, he always does." Yamcha assured the bald fighter, powering up as well.

Lifting himself up from the ground, Scar's aura flared into a red hue. "Alright, all of you try to keep up with me if you can!" Scar took off at blistering speeds, followed by the other three fighters who's auras all turned a shade of red.

* * *

The Namekian arrived first at the area where he deduced the ship would land, as it seemed to be moving in a downward position rather than diagonally. He released Trokar from his grip and stood in place, crossing his arms and closing his eyes to sense where the others currently were. He could already tell that Vegeta was on his way, but he couldn't sense any of the human's or Goku quite yet. It made sense, Vegeta was the closest to the area and had trouble keeping his power concealed, and the humans would all gather together before coming. Goku was another story, as Piccolo hadn't been able to feel Goku's ki for a long while now, and wasn't even sure if the Saiyan would come, but he still decided that to bring Gohan would be a tremendous mistake if his nemesis did happen to arrive at the scene.

It only took a few minutes before Vegeta had found the area, he almost doubled back upon seeing Piccolo, but decided to push through his fear and land in his general vicinity.

"If it isn't the Namekian, here to finish what he started." Vegeta said, crossing his arms and smirking at the green alien. Piccolo didn't even so much as acknowledge Vegeta's existence, which would have infuriated the prince if he wasn't so sure that Piccolo could kill him in an instant if he felt so inclined. Vegeta huffed and turned away, sensing the human's power levels rise as they made their way to the location. The human's all arrived rather quickly, landing close to Vegeta.

"Did we miss anything?" Scar asked the Saiyan after dropping Lod off of his back. Vegeta shook his head.

"The slug over there hasn't moved an inch." Vegeta claimed, keeping his eye on the sky where he expected the ship to land.

"Maybe it's better that way…" Krillin mumbled, causing Piccolo to grin slightly. The bald man's eyes shot open when he saw the smirk of Piccolo's face 'Oh crap, he heard me!'

"Any sign of Goku?" Tien questioned. Vegeta merely scoffed and shook his head.

"Does it look like I care where that worm Kakarot is?" The Saiyan said, truly not caring if the low class scum decided to show his face or not.

"That's some large talk coming from someone who just a few months ago bowed down to his old boss's father." Scar taunted the prince, who turned and growled at the scarred warrior.

"You're lucky that I can see you're the only one of these clowns with any real warrior inside of them." Vegeta insulted the three other humans "I have some respect for your plight, 'Scar', but I wouldn't test me if I were you." Scar smiled and crossed his arms at Vegeta, who turned his head and looked back into the sky.

For a brief moment Piccolo glanced over to the humans, his eyes crossed over to Lod, who was attempting to hide behind Scar's legs. If those humans weren't in the way, Piccolo imagined he would skin that traitor alive. It didn't matter, though, the Saibamen was weak and of no use to him at all. At least Trokar was able to calm Gohan, but even Trokar seemed rather useless now other than possible fodder for weaker enemies. Piccolo closed his eyes once more, he didn't want to think about the traitorous alien any longer.

A long silence was held between each of the fighters present before anyone asked another question.

"When is this ship gonna get here?" Krillin wondered aloud "We've been standing around for half an hour now!" The sun was starting to rise in the distance, and a few of the humans shared Krillin's sentiment.

"Be patient, you fool." Vegeta scoffed, keeping his eyes trained on the sky.

"It's hard to do when you have no idea what's gonna happen…" The bald man said, turning around to see if anyone was coming their way. To his surprise, he found that someone was on the horizon, coming in at great speeds. "Is that…" As he looked closer, he could see an orange gi, and he knew immediately that his suspicion was correct. "Hey guys, it's Goku!"

"What?!" The humans and Vegeta shouted, turning around to see Goku coming at them at blistering speeds. Piccolo merely grunted and continued to keep his eyes shut.

"Hi guys!" Goku shouted from a distance, waving his hand around in the air. Goku only took a few more moments to arrive; he stopped himself midair and took note of all of the people there, then landed next to Scar and Vegeta.

"Hey Goku, it's great to see you and all, but where the heck have you been?" Krillin asked, looking up at his closest friend.

Goku scratched his head and smiled "I've been uh… busy, yeah, just busy."

"C'mon Goku, it isn't like you to keep secrets." Yamcha chimed in, causing Goku to sigh.

"Alright, fine." He said, taking a seat on a nearby rock "I've been visiting some people, you remember Nam, Eighter and all of the other guys right?" Goku asked, shocking the others.

"Y-yeah, you mean all of the people we met when he were younger?" Krillin wondered, scratching his head.

"Yeah, I thought I would go off and say hi; warn them about the Androids in case we couldn't stop them." Goku explained, crossing his arms.

"Sounds like you, Goku." Scar joked, pulling from his belt a small pouch. "It's strange, I visited Eighter and asked him if he knew where Gero's lab was."

"So did I, but he told me he had no idea." Goku eyed the pouch in Scar's hand curiously. The scarred warrior tossed the bag at Goku, who opened it and found some senzu beans inside.

"Courtesy of Korin." Said the man from the future, turning to look at Piccolo "We have our own that we use for intense training, Korin has been supplying us for a while now." The Namekian knew that Scar was staring at him, but chose not to acknowledge it.

"I'll have to tell him thanks next time I see him." Goku said, tucking the pouch within his own belt.

"It's great that you've been warning people, but I think that you should start getting serious about training." Tien claimed, looking around to make sure the ship hadn't landed yet.

"Yeah, we've been making a lot of progress since you've been gone." Krillin added proudly, lifting his clenched fist in the air.

"That's great!" Goku said as he lifted himself from the rock "from what I've heard, you guys are gonna need as much power as you can get." Vegeta chuckled at his fellow Saiyans words.

"What's so funny, Vegeta?" Yamcha asked in a snide manner.

"That Kakarot thinks any of you could possibly stand a chance against these Androids." Vegeta turned to face the humans once more "If Piccolo couldn't do it in his timeline…" Vegeta pointed towards Scar "then what makes you think that you could do any better?" The other humans remained silent, even Scar had no words for Vegeta. "That's what I thought." The Saiyan turned around and continued to stare up at the sky.

"Don't listen to him, guys." Goku said, attempting to assure them "we're going to need all the help we can get when the time comes." Scar nodded in agreement.

"He's right, the only reason they were able to defeat us is because they got us alone. If we all fight together, we stand a much better chance." The man's words somewhat restored their faith, but doubts were still flooding their mind. They didn't have much time to dwell, however, as Vegeta had finally spotted the ship lowering itself to the ground.

"Here it comes." The prince warned, chuckling slightly. Everyone watched as a suspiciously recognizable ship lowered itself from the sky, everyone knew that they had seen a ship like this one just a few months ago, but they had no idea what to expect. Everyone but Vegeta, who knew full well who had come to avenge his family.

Dust began to fly into the air as the craft came closer to the Earth, wind was kicked up, blowing Piccolo's cape back as he stood firm mere yards away from where the ship was landing. Vegeta flew down from his vantage point to the area where he knew the door to the ship was, which faced slightly to the west of where Piccolo was standing. The human's, Goku and Lod decided to stay up where they were, as they could clearly see where the door was and wouldn't need to move in order to get a good glimpse at who was inside.

The ship landed to the ground with a simple elegance, it appeared to be some kind of upgraded model of what Cold and Frieza had used to arrive on the planet, or at least from what everyone could tell. They were only guessing however, as the ship seemed more sleek and exuded professionalism.

"Come on out, I've been dying to meet you!" Vegeta shouted at the ship, smiling as he took up a fighting stance. Everyone was wondering if Vegeta knew this person personally, but decided not to ask as the ship's door began to slide open.

A blindingly white light was shining through the doorway, only revealing two silhouettes who walked out of the ship. They had a high power level, but not nearly as high as the one on the inside of the ship, and that was the one that made the humans a bit nervous. One of the aliens had brownish skin and looked somewhat like an amphibious beast, while the other alien was green with long black hair and a helmet. They both had a matching set of armor, yellow chest plates with large pads on their left shoulder and purple pants. They both walked down the ramp that extended and then each stood on either side of the ramp as they got off. Two more silhouettes appeared, one looking very familiar the fighters in the area.

"My, my, Vegeta, so eager to meet your death again?" An authoritative voice boomed out, similar in sound to Cold's. As he and another one of his henchman stepped out of the shadows, they could all clearly see that this person was a relative of Frieza in some way. He was mostly purple, but his body type and tail gave him away. His henchman was a blue, and very human looking alien with blonde hair. He wore the same outfit as the other two henchmen, and it was obvious that he was the leader of the three of them.

"It's been too long, Cooler." Vegeta laughed, stating the aliens name clearly so that everyone around could hear.

"How quaint to see you, the Prince of the Saiyans on a planet such as this." Cooler mocked as he made his way down the ramp and stopped as soon as he touched the ground. "The planet you died on. To think, my brother thought of you as a valuable asset." Vegeta growled and powered up, only making Cooler laugh in response.

"I always wanted to put one of your kin in their place!" Vegeta shouted, blasting forward and throwing a punch at Cooler. Frieza's brother merely caught Vegeta's fist in his hand and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying up into the sky. Vegeta stopped himself in the air and unleashed a volley of ki attacks down at the Arcosian, which Cooler merely responded to with a wave of his hands that caused each ball of ki to explode in the air, smoke littered the sky.

Vegeta shouted and blasted through the smoke, unleashing a powerful kick at Cooler which he blocked with his forearm.

"Are you done? Or can I get on with business?" Cooler asked Vegeta in a straight face. The Saiyan flew back and landed meters away from the purple alien.

"Why did you come back here?!" Vegeta shouted, clenching his fists in rage "Is it to finish what your brother and father started?"

Cooler chuckled and shook his head "I'm shocked at you, Vegeta." He crossed his arms and closed his eyes "I thought you knew that I was smarter than those two blithering idiots."

Piccolo, who had up until now been content with watching Vegeta flail around against a superior opponent, grew intrigued as to what Coolers intent was. The Arcosian took a look around at all of the faces that surrounded him, first up to the humans and Goku.

"You seem awfully familiar…" Cooler noted to himself as he glanced over Goku's face, but gave it no further thought. He then looked over to the Namekian with a Saibamen nearby and nodded approvingly. "Ah, yes, the Namek of the hour." Cooler began to walk closer to Piccolo, his lead henchmen following closely behind. "I've been eager to meet you, Piccolo."

The Namekian raised his brow and smirked. "Come to collect the dignity I took away from your pathetic family?" Cooler let out a full laugh as he stopped his approach a few feet away from the Namekian.

"I agree with your description, they truly were pathetic." Cooler smiled. Piccolo was now thoroughly confused.

"Why are you here?" Piccolo asked, "Do you plan to attack?"

"Nothing of the sort, you see, I am not nearly as moronic as my father or Frieza." Cooler turned to his henchmen and tilted his head back. The alien nodded and ran back into the ship "I thought about destroying this planet, after hearing word from some of Frieza's former soldiers of your exploits. However, I had a personal stroke of genius, and it would have been a shame to simply obliterate a planet such as this." He cleared his throat and placed his hands behind his back "I have come for one specific reason; I wish to make a deal with you."

Piccolo's interest had peaked "What could you possibly offer me?" The Namekian questioned. The blonde alien came out of the ship with a tablet in his hands.

"Well, Piccolo, let me explain to me what a wonderful service you have done for me." Cooler said as he began to pace back and forth "My father, or King Cold, was the ruler of the Planet Trade Organization. He owned a majority of the planets in the northern quadrant of the galaxy, while he split up parts of his territories so that Frieza and I could rule over other parts." Vegeta, who was listening from the sidelines, already knew a majority of this information, but he stayed tuned to Coolers words "When my brother reached the age of ruling, my father pinned us against one another to see who would rule over a larger majority of the galaxy. My brother was born with a naturally higher power level than mine, and so he was able to overpower me in our battle." Piccolo listened very closely, as did the rest of the fighters in the area "I was given a miniscule portion of the galaxy when I deserved more. My father saw it, but he was afraid of my intellect, of my potential. He would have given Frieza all of my lands if he had known that I wouldn't have rebelled against him if he had." During Coolers speech, Scar wondered why Frieza's brother had never come to Earth in his timeline.

"In any case, when I had first heard of Frieza's demise from my father he had told me to come to the planet Earth with him and fight those who had dishonored the family. I thought about it for a moment, but decided against it, telling him that I had prior obligations. My hunch that he wouldn't make it out alive was correct." Piccolo chuckled, remembering how he easily defeated the tyrant. Cooler noticed and smirked "Yes, I had heard from a few sources that you were the one to kill both my father and my brother."

Piccolo shook his head "I can only take partial credit."

"In either case, you aren't a person that I feel inclined to cross." Cooler explained.

"Smart choice." Piccolo retorted.

Cooler looked at the Namekian for a moment before turning his head away. "When news reached my ears of my father's demise, I had been given all of his estate. The entire Cold Empire is now under my heel, and you helped bring me to power." Cooler chuckled and turned back to face Piccolo "I am now the most wealthy and powerful individual in the entire galaxy."

"You may be the wealthiest, but you are far from the most powerful." Vegeta grinned, hand hovering over the button on his belt.

"Please, Vegeta, the adults are talking." Cooler quipped, only serving to enrage Vegeta further. "I feel obligated to return the favor, Piccolo." Cooler said as he returned his gaze towards the Namekian.

Piccolo merely laughed at Coolers words; there was almost nothing that this alien could possibly offer him that he would find interesting. "Perhaps I should just kill you, for fun." Piccolo smirked, clenching his hands into fists at his side.

"Ah-ah-ah" Cooler said, waving his finger at Piccolo "I came prepared, unlike my father. Salza, show him the screen." Cooler moved to the side and Salza turned his tablet around, showing a massive amount ships just outside of the planet. "I brought an armada large enough to decimate this planet in seconds, and if I utter the words, my men will not hesitate to annihilate this rock." Realizing that he had no control over the situation, Piccolo released his clenched fists and stared at Cooler with a hateful gaze.

"Alright, fine, what is it that you want?" Piccolo asked, looking over to see the semi-horrified faces of the earthlings.

"I wish to seek an alliance of sorts with you, Piccolo." Cooler said, examining the Namekian's angered features "If I should call upon you, you will come to my aid. In return, your planet will be under the protection of the Cooler Empire."

"And if I refuse?" Piccolo asked, crossing his arms.

"Ha," Cooler laughed, turning to Salza "Well I'd be far less inclined to allow this planet to continue existing in my empire." He turned back and watched as Piccolo's hatred turned to sheer rage.

Piccolo rushed up and grabbed Cooler by the neck, lifting him up into the air. The Arcosian grabbed onto Piccolo's arms and attempted to crush them, but to no avail.

"Who do you think I am?!" Piccolo shouted "did you think I'd just roll over for you like some worthless fucking dog!?" Before Salza and his men could act, Cooler made a motion with his hand that called them off.

"If I die…" Cooler coughed out, struggling to breathe as Piccolo choked him "my armada will… open fire… on Earth…" Piccolo held onto Coolers neck for a moment out of sheer spite, crushing his throat ever so slightly.

"Let him go Piccolo!" Goku shouted, powering up into his super Saiyan form. The Namekian didn't even look at Goku, but he still smirked.

He let go of the Arcosian, who stumbled back and placed his right hand around his sore throat. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today." Cooler announced, straightening his posture. Goku eased up and released his super Saiyan state.

"Do you need medical assistance Lord Cooler?" Salza asked, to which Cooler merely shook his head.

"I'm fine." Cooler assured his henchman, cracking his neck "I'll be damned if a Namekian causes me to go to the medical ward." It took all of Piccolo's mental discipline to stop himself from mutilating Cooler's body, but he managed to stay his hand. "I hold the cards, Piccolo. You hold nothing." Cooler's voice changed to one of a dark and foreboding nature "You see, I'm going to do something far better than kill you. I will make you into my puppet."

Piccolo stared at Cooler for a moment before disappearing completely.

Cooler's green henchman shouted as he felt a pair of hands on either side of his head, but he was silenced by a swift CRACK. The brown henchman watched his comrade fell to the ground as Piccolo appeared behind him, ramming his fists right through the aliens chest, making him scream in agony.

"Doore, Neiz!" Salza screamed out, stepping forward before Cooler caught his shoulder. Piccolo released his hand from the aliens chest and whipped his hand to the side to shake off some blood before walking back over to Cooler.

"Get off this fucking planet, before I do that to you." The Demon King ordered. Cooler growled and walked past Piccolo, stepping over Neiz's body. He was quickly followed Salza, who was in shock at his comrades sudden deaths.

Before Cooler began to get back onto his ship, he turned to Piccolo "Take this." He said, grabbing the tablet from Salza's hands, throwing it to Piccolo, who caught it. "I'll be keeping an armada of ships nearby at all times. If you refuse to come to my aide, this planet will be extinguished." Piccolo and Cooler stared at each other for a few moments before the Arcosian broke eye contact. "Grab those bodies, Salza; we'll bury them on their home planets."

"Yes, Lord Cooler." Salza dragged both of the dead bodies aboard the ship, the ramp slowly sunk back into the ship as he dragged them aboard. Once he was completely in the ship, the door slid shut. The fighters waited for a while before the ship began to lift off of the ground, and take off back into space where it came from.

As he watched the aircraft take off, Vegeta eased his hand from the button. His anger was now ten times what it had been earlier, not only had he not put a single dent in that pompous Arcosian, he wasn't even regarded as a threat in the slightest. He immediately blasted off, not even bothering to listen to what the others had to say about this new development.

Scar took a deep sigh as he watched Piccolo walk over to Trokar and transmit away, he was glad that they didn't have to fight, but it was worrying that Cooler had an entire armada of ships waiting to destroy Earth at a moment's notice. As he looked around at the faces of all of his friend he realized they were thinking the exact same thing.

"This is nuts!" Krillin shouted, looking up at Goku "What are we gonna do about this guys?"

Scar shook his head and sighed "Nothing." He said, running his hand through his hair. "Absolutely nothing."

"What do you mean nothing, what if he tries to destroy the planet?" Tien asked, genuinely afraid of the power this tyrant held.

"There isn't a damn thing we can do about it, not yet." Scar said forcefully, a hint of aggravation in his voice. "As long as Piccolo doesn't act like a moron, Earth should be safe."

"I'd rather not trust the safety of the planet in the hands of a lunatic." Krillin noted, forcing a chuckle.

"There isn't much we can do against an armada of ships, Krillin." Goku said, shaking his head as well "All we can do is keep training for the arrival of the Androids."

Yamcha growled in agitation "There's already so much shit we have to deal with, and now this Cooler guy shows up and tells us that he can have Earth destroyed with a single word? How bad can things get?!" He shouted, turning to Scar for a moment and feeling slightly remorseful for his words.

"A lot worse." Scar said to his former self. His aura flared as he prepared to leave the area.

"Should we tell Jeice?" Krillin asked his new teacher. Scar shook his head from side to side.

"There's no point, besides, we might need them someday." As hard as that was to believe, the others accepted it and blasted off back to the Capsule Corp. building.

* * *

As Piccolo reappeared back at the cave, he tossed Cooler's device to the ground, hoping that he would never have to hear from him again. That was horrible, he was humiliated in front of the very people he was supposed to strike fear into, and for what? A pathetic green rock? Piccolo growled and clenched his fists in anger.

'Who does he think I am?!' The Demon shouted in his head, clenching his fists so tight that he drew blood 'I'm no man's puppet!' Piccolo roared out in anger and raised his right hand above his head, palm flat. He expelled a massive ki blast that decimated the cave from the inside out, waking up Gohan as the entire mountain began to quake.'

"Get up, boy, training starts now!" Piccolo shouted, grabbing Cooler's device as he exited the crumbling cave. Gohan dodged out of the way of a falling boulder just in time and rushed out of the cave right before the entrance caved in. Luckily for Trokar, he was already safely far away from the mountain.

Gohan had barely rose to his feet when he felt a brutal punch to his face send him flying hundreds of yards into the sky. The boy shot into is super Saiyan stated and attempted to block the next punch but was blindsided by a nasty kick to his back, sending Gohan crashing towards the ground. Piccolo had never used his instant transmission technique against Gohan in training before, and the half breed Saiyan knew that Piccolo wouldn't be letting up now, even if he tried to talk him down. Before Gohan crashed into the dirt, Piccolo appeared directly under him and rammed his knee into the boy's abdomen, which caused Gohan to reel forward and cough blood. Piccolo disappeared once more and slammed his interlocked fists down on the boy's back, forcing him to crash into the Earth. Gohan's aura dissipated and his hair turned back into its normal black color, it was obvious that he was badly beaten and in need of assistance.

Piccolo scoffed, if the boy could even handle that, how could he stand a chance against the Androids?

"You're pathetic, boy!" Piccolo shouted as Gohan tried to use his arms to get up, but fell back to the ground "I should never had tried to train you in the first place! It was a complete waste of my time!" Gohan ceased to move, but Piccolo didn't care. The Namekian didn't even bother to pick the boy up; he just left him there and went off to train on his own.

Gohan clenched his teeth in anger; everything he had done for Piccolo had finally led up to this. He was worthless, to Piccolo he was nothing more than a pawn in a game of chess. The boy couldn't take it, he decided that it would be better to just lie down and die than to get up and live with the shame of being a complete and utter failure in the eyes of the one person he respected most.

A few minutes after the "battle," Trokar slowly crept up to the boy and rolled him over to his side. The Saibamen was horrified to see that Gohan's nose was very badly broken, his backbone had nearly shattered and there was a noticeable intend on his stomach. Trokar felt for a heartbeat, and luckily he found that his best friend was still alive. Trokar reached into Gohan's belt and snagged the pouch that held his own personal senzu beans and placed one into his mouth, a tear flowing down his face from witnessing such a brutal beating.

He forced the unconscious Gohan to swallow the bean and stepped back, hoping for the best.

After a few seconds, Gohan's eyes flickered open, full of absolute fury and rage.

He rose to his feet and looked directly at Trokar, his eyes filled with fire.

"G-gohan?" Trokar asked worriedly. The child shook his head slowly and smiled.

"**KILL!**" Gohan shouted, rushing forward at the frightened Saibamen.

* * *

**Has Piccolo finally broken Gohan's mind? Find out next time on Piccolo's Choice!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Editen By: SSJ2 Silven**


	41. Chapter 36: Gohan's Rampage

**Chapter 36: Gohan's Rampage**

"Just our luck, when it finally looks like something is going right for us, something had to come along and ruin everything!" Yamcha shouted as he, Krillin, Tien, Scar, Goku and Lod flew away from the landing zone of Coolers ship. They hadn't made it that far yet, but each one of their minds were racing with ideas of how this armada of ships hovering around Earth would affect things. The only people who weren't visibly worried were Scar and Goku, and also Lod, but more so because he didn't understand the implications.

"Calm down Yamcha, we'll deal with this when we can." Goku told his friend. Honestly, not even he knew what would happen; he just knew he had to console his friend.

"I dunno, Goku, you heard Cooler, if he gives the word, Earth goes 'bye-bye!'" Krillin shouted in a frightened tone.

"I'm trying not to worry about it too much, but this seems like it could be a huge problem…" Tien added, looking over at his current mentor. "What do you think, Scar?"

The scarred man mulled it over for a while, thinking to himself of the ways that this could adversely affect training. Ultimately he decided that it would be better to focus on the looming threat of the Androids.

"Look, I know that this looks bad, but we have to keep our minds on what's important," Scar said, looking back at his friends. "I know you're all afraid—so am I— but if we let this negatively affect our training then we'll never be able to stop the Androids."

Yamcha scoffed "Yeah, especially if there's no Earth left to protect." Scar chose to ignore his past counterparts comment, they had a few spats here and there throughout their training, but Scar wasn't about to let his former self get to him.

"Once we get back to Capsule Corp., Goku and I will discuss our new training regiment, alright?" Scar asked as he moved his head to look forward. "If you guys want to come up with a plan to deal with this armada of ships, do it on your own time; I don't want you slacking off in your training." Krillin and Tien both nodded, but Yamcha was still slightly bitter. He decided not to say anything, however.

"Scar is right, you guys." Goku said, his voice steady and serious. "You can't let your training slip; if you do, then the Androids will tear us apart."

"Oh come on, Goku, you know just as well as we do that you're in another ballpark of power than us!" Yamcha shouted up to his friend. "Even though we've been training for 6 months straight, you're still way more powerful!"

"I didn't want to say it, but he's right, you know," Krillin added. "You're even stronger than Scar, and he's been training almost his whole life!"

"That doesn't mean a damn thing!" Scar shouted, clenching his fists. "I don't want excuses; I want results, and if you're going to give up just because Goku is more powerful than you, than you're all more pathetic than I thought."

"Hey!" Yamcha shouted at his future counterpart.

"I never said anything about giving up…" Krillin said, rubbing the back of his head.

"You guys might think Goku is impossibly strong, but I'm never going to stop trying to be the best that I can be." Tien added in.

Scar smiled—no one else could see— but he was glad to have at least elicited such a response from each of them.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around, but I wanted to let people know to get ready for the worst." Goku began to explain, placing a hand on the back of his head. "I talked to Chi-Chi about it and she agreed to come live at the Capsule Corp. building until the training is over, same with Ox King. We can't waste any more time. "

"Good, we'll be able to train to our fullest if you're around, Goku," The short bald man said, smiling at his former rival.

"Right," Tien nodded. "I've wanted to test out my new techniques on you." Goku chuckled, causing Tien and Krillin to laugh as well.

The current incarnation of Yamcha was more silent than usual. He was wary of his future counterpart, and found himself to be rather adverse to him overall. The reason he couldn't describe to himself was because they were too similar. Perhaps he felt like some kind of failure with this 'improved' Yamcha around, but he didn't know. All he knew was that ever since Scar had come around, he was feeling less adequate and angrier, and it was affecting his relationship with his friends and Bulma. He knew that she was hanging around that Saiyan—the Prince Vegeta, to be exact—a lot, but when he had confronted her about it, she brushed it off like it was nothing. He told her that he didn't mind as long as it didn't get serious, but deep down he wished that Vegeta would just disappear. The others noticed Yamcha's change in behavior recently, but thought of it as nothing more than a difficulty adjusting to changes. After all, they were all going through some heavy changes in their lives. Plus, with the looming threat of the androids, there was no time to worry about such petty little things.

They all flew a ways, speaking of plans for the next few years when Goku stopped in his tracks. Scar stopped almost immediately after, and the others followed suit when they saw the two dead silent, looking backwards.

"Oh fuck…" Scar murmured quietly, clenching his fists together. Soon after Scar had noticed it, the others quickly followed suit and looked straight in the direction that they felt a huge power emerge from.

"That's not Piccolo!" Yamcha shouted, looking back to Goku. "We need to get out of here!"

Goku floated in place for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Scar looked at the Saiyan for a moment; it was clear Goku was hesitant to act, but Scar didn't want to circumvent his authority as leader of the band of fighters.

"I… I don't know," Goku finally said. "I don't know what's going on, but that power… Gohan isn't himself right now, so Piccolo may be in danger."

"So what?" Yamcha asked, a grin spreading across his face. "Let that bastard die, for all I care. Saves us the trouble of killing him after we kill those androids."

"He has a point. If Piccolo dies then we won't have to worry about him after the Androids." Tien looked over to Scar for approval.

The man from the future shook his head. "I think we may have something far worse to deal with if Piccolo dies…"

* * *

**Moments Earlier…**

The power surging through his body was immense. If he could think properly, he would wonder how his strength had shot up so much, but the boy's mind was numb. It had locked itself in an impassive chasm, and in logic's place was a singular thought.

The Saibamen hadn't even been a challenge for him, he easily decimated his opponent and began to fly to the strongest being near him, all with a sadistic grin plastered on his face. No doubt had his "master" felt him coming, as he was giving off massive amounts of power without thinking about it.

He saw the green man floating in the air, arms crossed, merely waiting for him. From within, Gohan couldn't feel or think for himself, but the monster that had taken over hadn't planned on allowing Piccolo to leave this area alive.

* * *

The group flew as fast as they could to where they had felt Gohan's energy surge when one of them had seen a Saibamen on the ground below. Lod was the first to descend, followed by Goku and then the rest of the fighters. When they landed, they could all tell that Trokar had almost no life left in him. He was flat on his stomach, barely breathing, arm outstretched towards the brown bag that contained senzu beans. Acting quickly, Lod flew over to the bag and reached inside, taking one out and placing it in Trokar's mouth. Everyone watched as the dying Saibamen attempted to chew and swallow the bean; massive amounts of blood formed a puddle around his body, and from what everyone could see, it appeared that there was a hole punched straight through the small green alien.

Fortunately for Trokar, Lod had fed the bean to him just in time, and the hole began to close up and heal. Trokar coughed as he started to breathe harder and harder, he didn't exactly know what was happening since it had all gone so quickly.

"What happened?" Krillin asked as he knelt down to the Saibamen's level, Lod placed his hands underneath Trokar and gently flipped him to his back, and Trokar then lifted himself up by his elbows.

"Gohan… no, not Gohan… stop him, stop him!" Trokar shouted, going into a coughing fit and falling back to the ground.

"What's wrong with him?" Krillin wondered as he looked over to Goku.

"His organs might have been too damaged for the beans to have healed him fully." Goku shook his head in disappointment "If only we'd gotten here a minute earlier." Lod quickly lifted his brother's head with his arm, making noised and sounds that none of the other fighters could understand. As Trokar struggled to breathe, Lod turned to the others.

"Go… I stay with Trokar." The Saibamen gulped as he held back tears. The others nodded; Lod handed the bag of senzu beans to Krillin and they were off to find out where Gohan had run off to. Lod knew it was only a matter of minutes before his brother would be dead, despite the healing powers of the senzu, but he wanted to make sure that his last few moments would be spent by the side of someone who cared about him. Despite growing apart from his brothers, he still felt some kind of attachment to them since Piccolo had allowed them to remain outside of their seed form. Without Piccolo, they would all be mindless killing machines, just like they had been when they were grown by the Namekian. But now they had learned so much, Lod had learned kindness, and his blood thirst had finally subsided. Trokar was similar, and Lod could feel that Trokar was afraid now, not for his own life, but for his friend, Gohan. It was because of this fear for his friend that Lod wished he could have spent more time with Trokar, and why he felt so horrible about not being able to save him in time. They were changed; Lod, Trokar, Skriatch, even Gorth had been permanently altered by Kami's kindness, but it didn't seem to matter. Their role was insignificant, and in the end, Lod knew that he was even less than a pawn in this game of Piccolo's. As Trokar lay dying in his arms, Lod wept for his lost brothers, and held him one tightly as his life slowly began to slip away.

* * *

"What do you think you're doing, kid?" Piccolo questioned as Gohan floated before him in his super Saiyan state, golden aura exploding around him. Piccolo couldn't shake the feeling that something was off; the expression Gohan wore was demented. It would've scared him if he knew the boy's loyalty to him was 100% faithful. "You want another beating? Is that it?" The Namekian shifted into his signature fighting pose, still trying to figure out why Gohan's power had risen so much in such a short time. He had at first thought that perhaps Gohan was holding back, but he couldn't help but feel that he had caused this somehow.

Gohan merely chuckled, his hands were balled up into fists and his aura was exuding massive amounts of energy, but the boy just floated in place as if to taunt Piccolo. The Namek was hesitant to make the first move, he was actually afraid for the first time in a long while. Ever since the 23rd World's Martial Arts tournament he hadn't been fazed by anything except Frieza, but this was something entirely different. Piccolo blamed his cowardice on Kami's still-lingering presence, but he knew deep down that it was far more complicated than that.

Piccolo noticed some others flying towards them in the distance, but he was too focused on Gohan to take his eyes off of the boy. His aura was filled with malice, something that Piccolo himself was far too familiar with. This wasn't any normal malice; however, this was a hate that he had only seen twice before in the boy, and never as strong as he had felt it now. Piccolo knew that Gohan wasn't going to be a pushover as he had been before, and his worst fears had finally been realized. He'd pushed him too hard, and it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

"Don't even think about attacking," Piccolo ordered, keeping his eyes trained on the boy, whose twisted grin sent shivers down Piccolo's spine. "If you back down right now, I promise I won't kill you." The boy said nothing, and his head merely shook to either side very slowly. The Namekian let out a grunt, there would be no reasoning with him now; he was lost in his own rage. In a way, he had created exactly what he had meant to at the start, a powerful demon; only this was one he couldn't control.

Gohan lifted his head towards the sky and began to shout in absolute fury and rage=, his power was growing to even higher levels than it had been previously. Without any further hesitation, Piccolo threw his fingers to his forehead and he transported just a few yards in front of Gohan, rocketing himself forward and ramming his right fist into the boy's gut.

Gohan ceased his shouting and was pushed back several feet by Piccolo's attack. The Namekian grinned. Gohan's head was tilted downward and his body was shaking in pain.

'For all that power, you're still a pusho-' The Namekian's fist slowly retracted and his grin faded, he heard a low laugh coming from Gohan's lips, and as the boy's head lifted, Piccolo's eyes widened in surprise and fear.

"That's. Not. Nice…" Gohan slowly said, bringing his right arm back and quickly throwing it forward, punching Piccolo right in the face and sending him back a few yards. Gohan rushed forward and threw a few more punches, but Piccolo was ready for him and dodged the first few, blocking the third with his forearms. Piccolo transmitted directly behind Gohan and kicked him away, throwing a few ki attacks at Gohan's back. The boy stopped himself and threw his hands up in the air, releasing an invisible wall of ki that caused Piccolo's ki attacks to explode in the air.

The Namekian immediately teleported in front of Gohan and delivered a volley of punches to his face, but only until Gohan was able to put his arms up and begin deflecting the attacks with his forearms.

Goku and the others stopped in the air about one hundred yards from where the battle was taking place; none of them wanted to get caught in the middle, so it was safer to stay as far as possible while still being able to see what was going on. From their perspective all they could see was Piccolo attacking Gohan with most of his power, but Gohan seemed to be taking all of his hits with minimal damage. Everyone could sense the evil aura that Gohan seemed to be exuding, but Goku wasn't entirely convinced that Gohan had been broken.

"What the hell is going on?!" Yamcha shouted, trying to keep up with the ensuing battle. His eyes were only able to keep up because of the simple punches and kicks that Piccolo was throwing, and would no doubt be far too quick to see had Yamcha not been training his hardest with Scar and the others. However, were they doing any other advanced techniques; Yamcha would not even be able to see what would be going on. Goku, Scar— and to a lesser extent, Tien— were able to keep up with almost every single movement, but Krillin was having more trouble than he would have liked to admit.

"Gohan came after Piccolo; that much we know for sure." Scar said, referencing when he had felt the boy's aura going towards Piccolo's. Goku continued watching the two as closely as he could, hoping that Gohan wouldn't show any sign of malice towards Piccolo.

The half Saiyan broke off of Piccolo's assault and flew backwards a few feet, blasting many ki balls at his master. Piccolo threw up his arms and blocked as many as he could, deflecting a few into the nearby mountains, the ki attacks causing them to lose chunks and start avalanches. The humans all looked around as the mountains started to crumble, but Goku kept his eyes trained on his son.

Gohan flew straight at Piccolo after he had finished his ki assault and threw a guard crushing kick towards Piccolo's raised forearms.

FWACK!

The kick landed right on target, causing Piccolo to shout in pain and lower his arms. Gohan threw both of his arms to his side and then launched them forward and Piccolo's stomach. The Namek leaned forward and coughed out before he was sent flying through the air, eventually crashing to the ground, kicking up massive amounts of dust. Gohan didn't pursue; he simply floated and chuckled to himself.

"Creepy…" Krillin muttered, feeling an intense fear of the boy he had never felt before.

Through the dust, everyone could sense a power growing. Piccolo's aura was visible through the cloud of dirt, its vibrant color exploding and blowing the dust out of the way. Once the dust was completely gone, Piccolo grabbed onto his turban and threw it off.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, YOU BRAT!" The demon king shouted, throwing his cape to the side as well.

As Piccolo launched himself towards the boy, Gohan laughed to himself and launched several ki attacks down at his master, who managed to avoid every one of them on his way up to Gohan. Piccolo slammed his knee into the half Saiyan's gut, launching the child up into the sky. Piccolo placed two fingers near his forehead and charged a massive amount of energy in a very short time, and Goku realized what he was trying to do.

"No Piccolo, you'll kill him!" Goku screamed towards Piccolo. Upon hearing his father's voice, Gohan's head struggled upward against his own momentum to try and locate Goku.

"Special Beam Cannon!" Piccolo shouted, sending the attack directly at his pupil. As the attack was just about to make contact, a blue stream of ki flew by and knocked Piccolo's attack out of trajectory. Absolutely livid, the Namek looked over and saw Goku with his hands outstretched and in his super Saiyan form. "You're going to regret that!" Piccolo shouted towards the golden haired warrior, returning his attention to Gohan, who was charging towards him.

BAM!

Gohan's fist rammed straight into the unsuspecting Piccolo's jaw, sending him crashing towards the ground once more. Gohan once again did not pursue, but simply floated in place, chuckling.

"This isn't good!" Tien claimed, looking over to Scar.

The 'future' Yamcha nodded in agreement; whatever Gohan was up to, he wasn't doing it for any sort of good reason. "I don't know how, but Gohan is stronger than Piccolo right now. We're… going to have to help Piccolo."

"Are you insane!?" Yamcha quietly shouted, trying not to grab Gohan's attention. "He would tear us apart in seconds!"

"Fine, you can sit and do nothing, but I don't want to know what will happen if Gohan truly has gone over the deep end and we lose the only person able to put up a good fight against him." Scar turned and was about to go into the battle when Goku placed his hand on Scar's shoulder. "Don't try to stop me because he's your son, Goku." As Scar looked back, he could see the forlorn expression on the Saiyan's face. He had already realized that there was no other option; Gohan was broken, and had to be taken care of.

"Don't kill him, please…" Goku pleaded. Scar looked at him for a moment and shook his head, looking back to Gohan.

"I will if it's necessary." Scar's aura turned a deep crimson shade, and Goku powered up as far as he could as well. To the human's surprise, Goku had gotten quite a bit stronger, but nowhere to the degree of Piccolo and Gohan's power. Before they both took off, Piccolo rushed in and caught Gohan with a right hook, but the half Saiyan quickly recovered and returned to Piccolo with a slew of punches and kicks that the Namekian held at bay. Scar and Goku both blasted off, leaving Tien, Yamcha and Krillin behind.

"They must be crazy; Gohan was kicking the crap out of Piccolo!" Krillin said, keeping his eye on Goku and Scar.

"Maybe, but at least they're trying to do something…" The other two looked at Tien, who seemed conflicted.

"Don't tell me you're-"

"I'd rather die than sit back and watch the world's best hope of survival get beat to death." Tien interrupted Yamcha, who shook his head in disagreement.

* * *

Gohan had just landed a kick that sent Piccolo flying back when Goku caught his son off guard with an elbow to the back. Gohan was merely sent forward a few feet, but Scar was able to ram both of his outstretched legs straight into Gohan's back, and the momentum caused the boy to spiral out of control towards the ground. He recovered in the air and flew towards Scar, but was met with a brutal punch to the face by Piccolo. As Gohan was flying through the sky, Goku and Scar both launched a volley of energy attacks towards the boy.

A few of the ki attacks hit his body, but Gohan stopped himself in the air and deflected the rest of the ki balls, throwing his hands up and charging a powerful attack of his own.

Piccolo was rushing up for a follow up attack when he noticed the ball of ki above Gohan's head. "MASENKO!" Gohan shouted, tossing the attack directly at Piccolo. The Namekian tried to dodged out of the way, but the blast caught the right side of his body.

"AGH!" Piccolo shouted as his right shoulder and arm were incinerated in the blast. The rest of the attack flew past Goku and Scar and into a mountain, causing it to explode in a fiery ball of red light.

"Are you alright Piccolo?!" Scar shouted, rushing up beside the demon.

"Yeah, just fine," Piccolo claimed in a sarcastic tone. Gohan once again wasn't moving at all, merely staring at the three fighters before him.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Scar wondered aloud, looking back at Goku, who merely stared at his son with an almost defeated gaze.

"Humph, how the hell should I know?" The Namekian grunted as re regenerated his lost limbs. "Look at him. H e's just toying with us." The boy floated in place with a smug grin on his face. It appeared that he hadn't even taken a slight bit of damage.

"Time to take it up a notch," Goku softly stated, putting his hands behind his back.

Scar looked over and was shocked to see that Goku's expression had changed to one of determination, a welcome change from the previous one.

"Ka-" as the attack charged, Gohan's grin faded. Before Goku could even say the next part of the attack, Gohan directly in front of Goku, laughing out loud as he gave an uppercut to his father, sending him sky high.

Piccolo tossed a swift kick at Gohan but met nothing but air; Gohan dodged out of the way and flew towards Scar, who threw his arms up and amplified his defenses using the Kaio-Ken. Gohan's punch nearly broke through Scar's defense, but the scarred human was able to hold on long enough for Piccolo and come in and ram his intertwined fists straight at Gohan's back.

Gohan flew at the ground and threw his hands in front of himself, stopping his descent with invisible ki blasts aimed towards the ground, but was met with a ferocious kick from Piccolo that sent the boy flying back upwards. Goku, who had shaken off the attack Gohan had delivered unto him, rushed toward the boy, throwing energy blasts that Gohan didn't have time to block. As the made contact with his body, smoke shot out into the sky, and Goku threw a punch at where he thought Gohan to be but missed completely.

He looked up quickly and saw the boy straight above him, a horrible grin on his face. Goku flew downwards and launched a quick energy beam at his son, but Gohan kicked it out of the way and charged an attack of his own that he threw at Goku. The Saiyan closed his eyes and lifted his arms up in a feeble attempt to stop the blast, but before the attack could make contact, Goku heard a slight noise and felt a hand on his back, and when he opened his eyes he saw Piccolo behind him. Without another word, Piccolo cupped his two hands together and aimed it where Gohan's blast was about to be, charging a massive ki attack and blasting it at Gohan's. The ki beam slammed into the half Saiyan's, altering its trajectory so that it wouldn't damage the planet at sending the attack careening towards a mountainous region.

"Don't say a word…" Piccolo ordered, knowing that Goku was trying to find something to say to the Namekian. Gohan clenched his teeth in anger and shouted up into the air, his aura exploding once more.

All three of the fighters quickly charged at Gohan, who erected an invisible barrier and shot it out in all directions, causing Goku, Scar and Piccolo to fumble slightly in the air. As he was trying to recover, Gohan grabbed his father's hair and kneed him in the face, breaking Goku's nose and causing him to shout out in pain. Piccolo threw a kick at Gohan's chest that he blocked with his free hand, grabbing down on Piccolo's leg with such force that the Namekian cringed in pain. The half Saiyan hadn't even noticed Scar's attempts to punch and kick Gohan's back.

As Gohan released both Goku's hair and Piccolo's leg, Scar flew backwards and charged a ki attack that he quickly sent towards Gohan's exposed back. The boy turned quickly and stopped it by taking control of it himself mid course, turning it around and blasting it at Scar with such a force that it should have been inescapable.

However, using his advanced knowledge of the Kaio-Ken technique, Scar was able to amplify his speed an escape just in time. Piccolo blasted Gohan from behind with some highly concentrated ki attacks that took the boy off guard, causing him immense pain.

"GAH!" The half Saiyan shouted as he reached for the burning sensation on his back. Piccolo took advantage of Gohan's pain and rammed his fists where his energy attack had landed, increasing Gohan's pain immensely. The boy quickly flew away with his back turned away from Piccolo and charged a ki attack between his two hands, lifting it up and tossing it at the Namekian as hard as he could. Luckily for the demon king, the ki attack wasn't as strong as he expected, and it dissipated completely as his forearms took the brunt of the blast.

* * *

Off in the distance, Vegeta watched the battle in secrecy. He had felt Gohan's immense power earlier and decided to check out the ensuing battle, but all of these powers were far beyond his. He had no idea how any of these people could possibly keep up with Gohan; the boy was invincible when enraged, it seemed. Once or twice he toyed with the notion of coming in and helping Goku and the others out, but at such a level of power, how could he even hope to be a match?

Even so, that human from the future was helping out and didn't seem to be taking that much damage from Gohan's attacks. He knew Scar had an advanced knowledge of the Kaio-Ken technique, but he had no idea to what degree he could amplify aspects of his body. It was immense; the amount of energy that Scar had pushed into his speed and defense, and Vegeta wished that he could somehow learn the technique as well. However, when he had half jokingly asked Scar months ago if he could teach him 'that pathetic technique' Scar admitted that he had no clue of how to teach it to anyone, simply how to teach people to manipulate the energy of the Kaio-Ken.

It was a shame, if Vegeta could use the Kaio-Ken, then Gohan would be no match for his Oozaru state.

"W-wait!" Vegeta said to himself, looking down at his belt, specifically at the button which would turn on the machine that would release Blutz waves into his eye. For the entire time he watched the battle, he had neglected to even think about his Oozaru form. No, it wouldn't be enough to fight Gohan one on one, but perhaps with the help of Goku and the others he could finally prove his worth to himself.

He looked around for a moment, to make sure that no one was looking at him or noticed him at all. It would be difficult to sneak up on someone using the Oozaru form, but Vegeta figured that he had to try.

Without any further hesitation, the Saiyan prince clicked the button.

For a moment, nothing happened.

"Damn machine, when I get my hands on-" Suddenly Vegeta's head shot forward. He could feel the energy rippling through his body, he was beginning to change.

* * *

As the battle raged on, Tien couldn't help but feel that he was needed somehow. Even though these people were all leagues above him, he detested sitting on the sidelines and doing absolutely nothing. If nothing else, his Tri-Beam should at least do some damage to Gohan, or at least he thought. Before he could get any farther in thought, he noticed two smaller powers had shown up behind Yamcha and Krillin.

"What the 'ell is goin' on?!" Jeice shouted, staring at Gohan and Piccolo as they were locked in a melee struggle. The three humans turned and saw both Cui and Jeice staring at the clash; jaw's agape as they attempted to read some numbers off of their scouters.

"What are you two doing here?!" Krillin forcefully asked the two of them.

"When we put our scouters on this morning, we read a huge power similar to Frieza's with Bulma's modified scouters." Cui explained, taking the scouter off of his ear "but on the way, they went on the fritz and only read off gibberish!"

"These guys are on a level that you can't even comprehend." Yamcha claimed, crossing his arms and looking back as Goku was swatted away by a kick from Gohan.

"No shit!" Jeice commented, attempting to follow the battle, albeit unsuccessfully.

Tien shook his head in frustration. "I can't take this anymore, I've got to do something!"

"No, don't even try it Tien!" Krillin begged his friend, who had already started flying out towards the battle "if you die, you're gone forever!"

Tien sighed "My well being is second to the Earth's. If I need to die so that Earth can be safe, then so be it." Yamcha was about to say something, but stopped himself when he saw Tien's determined grin on his face "Besides, I've got to test out my new technique on someone."

Yamcha grinned to hide his worry. "Give 'em hell, Tien." The three eyed man nodded at Yamcha and flew off to get a good vantage point.

* * *

As Gohan knocked Goku away with a kick, Piccolo rushed up behind him and slammed his fists into the boy's back. The half Saiyan was sent flying forward right into an uppercut from Goku, which caused the boy to spiral upwards into the sky. Scar attempted to kick Gohan in the air, but his leg was stopped by Gohan's forearm. The boy grabbed Scar's leg and threw him to his right, launching a massive number of ki attacks at the human as Piccolo teleported right below Gohan, grabbing his legs and throwing him down towards the ground.

Goku quickly grabbed Scar and moved him out of the way of the ki balls as Piccolo teleported once again below the half-breed, missing a kick as Gohan tumbled out of the way and rammed Piccolo in the chest with the top of his head. The Namekian flew back a few yards, stopping himself just in time to witness something rather interesting out of the corner of his eye. Wasting no time, Piccolo rushed in and feigned a punch towards Gohan that the boy had raised his arms to block. Piccolo disappeared before the punch connected and appeared behind Gohan, grabbing him by his armpits and throwing him into the sky as hard as he could. In a fit of rage, Gohan screamed and shouted as he rose up into the sky, but ceased quickly when he felt another massive power in the distance. He stopped himself midair and looked directly at Vegeta, as an Oozaru, making his way towards Gohan at incredible speeds.

Once Vegeta realized he had been spotted, he released an Earth quaking roar that grabbed everyone's attention, but Gohan knew that Vegeta's power as an Oozaru was still nothing compared to his. As Vegeta neared, Gohan laughed in an evil, twisted voice and clenched his teeth tightly.

"Ultimate Tri-Beam!" Tien shouted from behind, gaining Gohan's attention for a mere second. The boy noticed Tien's crimson aura as he fired the attack, but the blast moved so quickly that Gohan knew he wouldn't be able to dodge it. The boy shouted in fury as the extremely powerful blast rammed into his back, letting his arms to the side in pain, allowing Oozaru Vegeta to slam his massive fist directly into the boy with all of his might. Tien fired one more 'Ultimate Tri-Beam' at Gohan, which was all he could muster before blacking out and falling to the ground, but the beam was so powerful that Vegeta's megaton fist was able to push Gohan back so hard into the blast that he screamed out in sheer pain and nearly passed out right there.

As the blast dissipated, Vegeta flew backwards and panted heavily, he had put everything he had into that punch, and was satisfied to see that Gohan was slowly drifting to the ground in both pain and exhaustion.

"That's what you get for underestimating the prince of all Saiyans!" Vegeta shouted in his deep booming voice. Everyone watched intently as Gohan landed on the ground, feet first, and wondered if he was close to collapsing.

"Is-is it over?" Yamcha wondered aloud, looking over to Krillin who didn't say a word.

Gohan's head tilted upwards, revealing a grin that shocked every single person in the area.

"What?!" Vegeta yelled out, absolutely stunned that his and Tien's combined attack wasn't enough to bring the boy down.

Piccolo appeared right behind Gohan and delivered a brutal elbow to the boy's back, seemingly snapping him out of his trance like state and causing him to collapse on the ground. The boy's hair changed from its golden color back to his original black, and his massive power fell to pathetic levels as he became unconscious.

Goku landed close to where Piccolo and Gohan were, and Scar next to him. Vegeta pressed the button on his belt and reverted to his previous form, his Saiyan armor still thankfully intact. Yamcha and Krillin rushed to Tien's side and fed him a senzu bean, which brought him back to full power nearly immediately. Jeice and Cui decided to stick around, both of them absolutely astonished that Vegeta was the one who delivered the crushing blow to bring Gohan down, or at least it appeared that way to them.

Piccolo immediately looked over to Goku, who was still in his transformed state.

"Get out of here, now." The Namekian ordered, picking Gohan up by the collar of the back of his shirt.

Goku shook his head. "I'm not leaving here without Gohan; hand him over or you'll have another fight on your hands."

Piccolo stared into Goku's eyes for a moment; both of their rages were absolutely palpable. Piccolo dropped Gohan to the ground and smiled.

"If you think that just because I'm a little tired means that you're a match for me, you must be more delusional than I thought." The Namekian clenched his fists and dropped into his fighting stance.

"Don't be stupid, Piccolo, look around you." Goku said, motioning his hand around to all of his allies. "You're outnumbered, and outmatched."

Piccolo smirked. "Ha, you think that any of these pathetic fools can even touch me?" He shook his head and looked around at all of Goku's supposed 'allies' and noted how each and every one of them was a pathetic waste of life. "You have those two morons who stayed in one place the whole battle. What a great help they were." The demon mocked, turning to Jeice and Cui. "Those two fools who I could kill with a single flick of my wrist." He then turned his attention to Vegeta and Scar. "The Prince of the Saiyan's, who can't even go Super Saiyan." Vegeta growled at Piccolo's words, but didn't dare speak out against him. "And this hack, who couldn't even protect his family from simple machines." Scar took Piccolo's words in stride, trying not to display any sort of emotion to his words.

Goku looked back to Scar for some reassurance, but the 'future' Yamcha merely shook his head in disproval. He then turned to Yamcha, Tien and Krillin, but he could tell that Tien was still recovering from his life risking attack.

"Good help is hard to find these days, trust me." Piccolo said, dropping his fighting stance and ducking down to grab Gohan again. "Better luck next time, Goku." The Namek flew into the air and shook his head at the pathetic excuses for warriors below him, and finally flew off with Goku's son.

After Piccolo was out of earshot, Goku's face scrunched up and he shouted into the sky as loudly as he could. The sky turned dark for a moment as his rage shook the Earth, and the remaining fighters all watched in both fear and astonishment that Goku still has so much energy left.

Once he was finished shouting, the sky returned to normal and the Earth ceased to rumble. Goku's hair turned back into its original color, and Scar placed his hand on Goku's shoulder. The Saiyan shrugged it off and started to walk forward.

"I'm sorry Goku; we would have all been slaughtered if we tried to face Piccolo." Scar said to his friend. Goku didn't listen; he merely stopped in place and clenched his fists in anger.

"He's right; I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help." Tien agreed, rising to his feet with the help of Yamcha.

Vegeta merely grunted and flew away, wanting to test out this Oozaru form elsewhere, away from the quarreling fools. Cui and Jeice decided to head back to Capsule Corp. and explain to Guldo and Fiore what had happened.

"Gohan went insane, Goku; you saw it just as well as we did." Krillin tried to explain to his closest friend. "Who knows if he'll be the same when he wakes up."

"**IF**." Goku stated rather forcefully. The Saiyan powered up and flew off into the distance, not wanting to say a word to his comrades. Scar looked over to Tien and the others and shook his head.

"Let's hope he sticks around for training," Scar sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

* * *

**Later that night…**

Piccolo sat in front of the boy, watching him intently as he lay in the makeshift bed. Piccolo had looked around for Trokar for a while, but found only a single grave that he assumed someone had dug for the damned alien. It didn't matter, perhaps if Gohan returned to normal when he woke up, Piccolo could use Trokar's death as a motivator of sorts. He had grown sick of the Saibamen, anyway.

Hours upon hours he watched the half breed Saiyan, hoping that when he came to, he wouldn't be a raving lunatic like before. He needed to avoid turning Gohan into such a monster ever again, and he cursed himself for losing his temper because of Cooler. It was foolish, and it wouldn't happen again. Seeing Gohan in action today only served as a reminder to Piccolo of why he had chosen Gohan to be his disciple in the first place.

Piccolo's head perked up when he heard Gohan make a noise. The boy rolled to his side for a moment, then returned to lying on his back. The Namekian rose to his feet and took a defensive stance when he saw Gohan's eyes flicker. As they opened up fully, Piccolo kept his stance in the off chance that the boy might attack once more.

Gohan raised his head and looked at Piccolo, blinking a few times in confusion. "M-master? What happened?"

* * *

**What will be the consequences of Gohan's rage filled rampage? Will Goku stay and train with Scar and the others? And what of the fleet of Cooler's ships patrolling around Earth? Find out next time on Piccolo's Choice!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: SSJ2 Silven & Super Vegetarott**


	42. Chapter 37: Planning

**Chapter 37: Planning**

**Capsule Corp., shortly after the battle with Gohan…**

Scar and the others arrived shortly after Goku had, and most of them had a good idea of where he would have gone off to. Yamcha branched off to speak with Bulma, but Scar, Tien and Krillin wanted to comfort their friend after what had just happened. They all stopped in front of the large training room, hesitating for a moment before opening it. Jeice and Cui stared at them for a moment from outside of their personal training room, hoping that they could get some answers after they were done with Goku.

"Ey, you didn't tell me who came here when I asked about the power level similar to Frieza's." Jeice said from across the room to Scar, who turned to face the red alien "you gonna tell me or am I gonna have to…" a death glare from all three of the humans prompted Jeice to cut his words short. He was having a difficult time adjusting from his days as a ruthless mercenary.

"I don't have to tell you anything." Scar said forcefully, keeping eye contact with the leader of the strange aliens. Jeice broke eye contact and chuckled lightly.

"Right, right, I'm new at this whole… bein' normal thing." Jeice brushed some of his white hair out of his face.

"You can say that again." Krillin responded, holding back a laugh.

The red alien sighed "Alright, lemme try this again." He put his balled up hand up to his mouth and cleared his throat "Can you please tell me who came here?"

Scar looked at him for a moment, mulling over the idea in his head. Did they really need to know? Did they deserve to know? They had been behaved thus far, so he decided that he might as well explain after talking to Goku.

"Fine, but we have to talk to Goku first." Scar said, turning his head as he heard a loud noise coming from the usually sound proof training room "and from what I can tell, he won't be happy to see us."

"Alright then, we'll be waiting." Jeice said, sitting down on a nearby crate. Scar walked up to the door and knocked once. The noise had completely stopped from inside the room.

Scar looked back to Krillin who shrugged his shoulders. After turning to face the door once more, he noticed that it had already began to slide up, opening itself, most likely as a result of Goku's doing. They all three walked into the room and weren't surprised to find Goku in the middle of it, sweating profusely with his shirt off, facing the wall opposite the humans. As the door closed behind Tien, the three humans became anxious. Something felt strange about the normally pure hearted Goku, but they pushed it to the side.

"Look, I'm sorry I couldn't help you with Gohan." Scar claimed, looking over towards Goku who hadn't moved an inch "I know what it's like to have your child ripped away from you like that."

Both Tien and Krillin looked at each other in confusion, Scar hadn't told them about his past yet, although he planned to in the near future. Goku remained silent, only his heavy breathing could be heard.

"Piccolo is a monster, but we need him, you know that." The scarred human said, hoping to convince Goku that his decision was the right one "and you also know that he would have slaughtered us all if we would have tried to fight him."

The room stayed silent. Goku still would not open his mouth.

"I think he's right Goku, as much as we all want Gohan back, the fate of the planet is a little more important."Krillin seconded "and if you were killed by Piccolo, I don't think the world would stand much of a chance."

"We've all done so much, I'm sure that when these androids show up we can defeat them and get your son back." Tien claimed reassuringly. After hearing the three eyed man's word, Goku finally turned to face the others. His face wasn't one of anger, as they expected that it would have been, but one of despair and sadness. He hadn't shed any tears, but they could tell that he was on the verge.

"Did you see the look in his eyes?" The Saiyan asked the three humans, a slight quiver in his voice "he was… tortured." Goku began to stare at the ground, still holding back tears. "Piccolo has been breaking him for over two years now, and I can't bear the thought of that!" He shouted out, clenching his teeth as a drop of liquid streamed down his face to his chin, then falling to the floor. "He thinks that…" a brief pause left the room absolutely silent "he thinks that I'm the one responsible for making his life this way, and maybe he's right."

The Saiyan fell to his right knee, placing his right palm on his face in disgrace "what have I done for him?" Krillin was about to speak up, but couldn't seem to find the right words to comfort his friend "what have I done for him!?" He shouted out, remembering all of the times that he could have saved his son. "I let Piccolo take him, I hesitated to wish Gohan back, and now I can't even save him from a life of constant torture! What kind of father am I?!"

"You're a great father." Scar said softly through the silence that followed. "You think about him every damn day. You would do anything to have him back, so don't ever tell yourself that you aren't good enough."

"Don't give me that." Goku said, lifting himself to his feet once more "you and I aren't the same, your son had a family, my son lives in a constant hell of my own doing!"

The room remained silent for some time, no one wished to speak. Krillin and Tien were perhaps more curious and confused than anything, but they decided to hold their questions until later.

Goku sighed and shook his head, placing a hand on his forehead. "Complaining about it won't solve anything." He stated, wiping the sweat off of his forehead "I need to get stronger so that I can get Gohan back."

Scar smiled and nodded back at his friend "That's a good way to think about it, focus on getting Gohan back."

"Right!" Krillin shouted, closing his fists in encouragement "Piccolo won't stand a chance once we're done with our training!" Goku didn't smile, but he did nod and walk over closer to the humans.

"I'll need a lot of help these next two years; I'm counting on you guys as training partners to help me get stronger." Goku said, holding his hand out for Scar to shake.

"You can count on us, Goku." The scarred man confirmed, firmly grasping the Saiyans hand while he shook it.

"It's the least we can do." Tien added "but how are we going to keep up with you?"

Krillin had the same question on his mind, but Scar already knew what Goku would do.

"He's not going to use his golden hair thing, that's for sure." Scar said, laughing a bit as Goku shook his head.

"It's called super Saiyan, and if that's how you want to do it then I won't transform while we train." The Saiyan turned to his left and headed towards the wall where a towel rack was hanging.

"To be honest, that's the only way we'll be able to keep up!" Krillin claimed as he began to limber himself up through training exercises "how about we see if we can still keep up with you without that power up huh?" The short man said half jokingly. He did truly want to test out his Kaio-Ken against Goku in a fight that would be more even, but he doubted that Goku would want to fight again that day.

"No thanks, Krillin." Goku declined, confirming Krillins suspicions "I'm done fighting for today, so tomorrow will be our first day of training, does that sound alright?"

"Sure, but make no mistake Goku, this is my dojo." Scar crossed his arms and stared firmly into Goku's eyes, no hint of joking on his face "what I say goes, understood?"

Goku nodded "You're the expert; I won't try to undermine your authority."

"Good." Scar said, uncrossing his arms and turning to face Tien and Krillin "I'll go talk to Jeice and Cui about Cooler, you two stay and run the Kaio-Ken drills that I taught you last week."

"Are you kidding, there's no way we're ready for that!" Krillin shouted, prompting a 'humph' from Tien.

"Maybe for you." Krillin looked up and stared at Tien in annoyance.

"If haven't done it by the time I get back, I'll have you off in the corner holding Kaio-Ken times four until you collapse from exhaustion." Krillin's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

"R-right!" He shouted, running off and preparing himself. As Scar turned toward the door, Goku walked up beside him.

The two looked at each other for a moment, and Scar could already tell that Goku wasn't truly over the humans not vouching to help fight Piccolo earlier in the day. However, he knew that Goku would forgive them in time.

"You sure that telling them about Cooler is the right thing to do?" Goku asked as the two began to make their way to the door. Scar nodded as he pressed the button to make the door rise.

"They might know what we can do about the fleet of ships patrolling around Earth." He replied as the door slid all the way open. "They might have been bastards before, but I think that they've changed since Ginyu died."

"Maybe you're right…" Goku said as they stepped out of the room. The Saiyan looked over to Jeice and Cui, who were both sitting on crates, laughing as they talked to each other.

"I was the one who finished Jeice off in my timeline, so trust me when I say that he isn't nearly as much of a bastard as he was then." Scar smiled at Goku and placed his hand on the Saiyans shoulder. "I know that Piccolo's still out there, just as evil as ever, but try to remember everyone who you've changed for the better."

Goku continued to stare forward at the two aliens who seemed to be having a good time. Memories of his past began to flood into him, reminding him of when he had first met Yamcha, the desert bandit. They had fought, but it didn't take long for Yamcha to come around and help Goku in his quest. Then he remembered Oolong, the pig whom Goku had also befriended in his past. Tien was among those who Goku had swayed to the side of good as well, as he had been trained by the evil master Shen and nearly fell to the vices that Mercenary Tao had before him. Even Vegeta had come around somewhat since he had been revived, and now he was even becoming more and more friendly with Bulma and her family. He had nearly forgotten how many people had changed their ways in the past, and he decided to give these two a chance.

"Alright, you've convinced me." Goku said, turning to his friend "I'll trust them, just like I trusted you all those years ago." Scar grinned and pat Goku on the shoulder, nodding at him in reassurance of his trusting nature.

As Goku began to make his way out of the room, both Jeice and Cui noticed that Scar had come out of the training room and was heading their way.

They both looked at each other and then back at Scar. Despite the fact that Ginyu had been killed by Scar only six months ago, Jeice had already largely gotten over his former captains death. Of course he still didn't fully trust this so called 'man from the future' but he wasn't about to go picking a fight with the guy who annihilated his old boss. Cui had only known Ginyu for about a year, but the captains death made little impact on him personally, and so Cui didn't harbor any intense feelings of hate towards the human either.

The two of them stood up from the boxes that they sat and nodded at Scar.

"What happened out there today?"Cui questioned, crossing his arms and looking curiously at the human.

"Ah, well a lot of things really." Scar scratched the back of his neck and grinned "but I suppose you really want to know who the person who came and left Earth was, right?"

Jeice looked over to Cui and then back to Scar, his face filled with some kind of confidence.

"It was Cooler, wasn't it?" The red alien asked, looking directly at Scar. The man nodded slowly in slight confusion.

"So you knew who it was all along?" Jeice wobbled his head.

"With a level of power like that, it 'ad to be." Jeice cracked his neck on both sides and sat back down on his crate. "I bet Salza was with 'im, that bastard. To tell you the truth, Ginyu probably only stayed here cuz he knew Cold would show up."

"Wait, you knew about Cold?" Scar asked in an almost threatening tone "did you know about Cooler too?"

"Woah, calm down there!" Jeice said, motioning his hands in a downward position "only reason I kept Cold to myself was because I was followin' orders from the cap'n."

There was a brief silence, Scar was waiting for more explanations, but Jeice seemed to keep his mouth shut purposefully.

"And? What about Cooler?" Scar said, breaking the tension.

"Uh, well that's an interesting story…" The red alien looked around the room and then down to the ground, kicking his right foot at the floor lightly "the Cap'n didn't much like Salza, they were in competition for the leading position of the Armored Squadron and Ginyu lost to 'im."

Scar crossed his arms and shook his head "how does that have anything to do with Cooler?"

"I'm gettin' there, hold your trousers." Jeice cleared his throat and chuckled "well, I was sort of hopin' Cooler'ed show up, just to show Salza how much of a pansy he is compared to us now that we've been trainin' and all."

"That still doesn't tell me why you decided to not tell us about another member of Frieza's family."

"You're an impatient one, I can tell you that much." Jeice stated with some minor annoyance "I didn't tell any of you because it wouldn't have mattered anyway. You're actin' like I knew exactly when he was gonna show up. Well I had no clue if he would or not, so get off my back."

The scarred man's eyes widened in surprise of Jeice's words, after all, he did have a point.

"It still would have been nice to know that there was another one of those bastards out there, but I see your point." Scar digressed, uncrossing his arms "so why'd you all stay here if you knew that Cooler was still out there?"

"Hah, Cooler might be nice to his own men, but he hated the Ginyu force. He would have killed Ginyu and I on the spot without Frieza around to stop 'im."

Scar nodded and placed his right hand upon his forehead "Well there's more to the story, he didn't just come here to fight or anything like that."

"Figures, Cooler always seemed like he was plannin' somethin' against Frieza." Jeice admitted, looking over at his team's training room as soon as he heard the door open. Out came Fiore and Guldo, both looking rather flustered for some reason. "So then why'd he come to Earth?" Jeice wondered aloud, turning back to Scar.

"To turn Piccolo into a puppet." The scarred man said, watching as Guldo and Fiore walked up and stood next to Cui.

"Hah, serves that bastard right." Cui said as he smirked.

"How the hell'd he do that?" Jeice asked.

"He stationed a fleet of ships around Earth, if Piccolo is called to action and doesn't respond, those ships will destroy the planet." All four of the alien fighters looked towards Scar in both surprise and confusion.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Fiore shouted out, looking around the room to make sure that no one had taken notice of her.

"Calm down, there's no reason to panic." Scar said, attempting to calm the four alien's nerves.

"When you start talking about the planet blowing up, I think I'd rather just leave Earth." She replied. Jeice shot Fiore a dirty look that seemed to have made her not want to talk anymore.

"I doubt Cooler would let anyone off the planet anyway." Jeice stated.

"Well, I was hoping that maybe you would know how we could solve this problem?" Skar asked.

"You're askin' for my help?" Jeice laughed out, tilting his head back and cackling towards the ceiling. Once he was finished he smiled and shook his head "I don't help anyone for free. You want my help, you're gonna need to pay up."

"Uh, maybe it would be in our best interest to do this one at no charge?" Cui suggested.

"Shut your hole, Cui, we still need to make a livin' too you know." The leader of the aliens looked back over to Scar "how does… let's say one million Zeni sound?"

Scar's eyes widened in surprise "One million for some information? Do you think I'm made of money?"

"No, but Bulma is." Jeice said, a sly grin emerging on his face. Scar looked at him for a moment and shook his head.

"Fine, but this had better be some damned good info."

"Please, Scar, Team Jeice always delivers." The red alien confidently stated, looking around at his team as they stared at him. "What're all your problems?" They stopped staring and began looking around the room frantically.

"I'll be back with your money later tonight." Scar said, turning to head back towards the training room "and if this information isn't as good as I expect it to be, you won't be getting a single Zeni out of the deal."

After he had walked away, Jeice stood back up from his crate.

"One million Zeni?!" Cui shouted quietly to his leader "you could have easily gotten more from him!"

"Don't worry about it; I've got a plan to wring some more cash out of them."

"You had better, even if we didn't split the money, one million Zeni isn't nearly as much as one million credits would be." Fiore stated, having already done the calculations in her head.

"You're not going to tell him about that Arcosian are you?" Guldo asked Jeice, who tilted his head up slightly in thought.

"Well, he is the only one that Cooler'ed trust guarding this planet, that's for sure." Jeice said, rubbing the back of his neck with his white gloved hand "and if it is him, these guys are gonna need a lot more than information to stop 'im."

* * *

Deep out in the middle of nowhere, a massive clothed ape stood silently in the rocky wastes. This place reminded him of when he had first come to Earth, it was similar to the area that he had fought Goku and Piccolo in, and now he was much, much more powerful. He thought to himself about the boy, Gohan, and how powerful he had grown simply through his intense rage. Vegeta knew the feeling well, he channeled his own power through anger at times, but the boy was completely lost in his own madness during the entirety of the fight. It had cost him too, as he had underestimated the brute power of Vegeta's Oozaru form and Tien's Kaio-Ken boosted Tri-Beam.

Vegeta wasn't so foolish as to believe that he had been the one to deal the decisive blow in the battle, he had merely given Tien's attack the chance to pound Gohan harder than he would normally have, which caused the boy immense harm and brought him down to a level where he was easily dispatched by Piccolo. Even with all of his newfound might, Vegeta couldn't even lay a finger on Gohan, Goku or Piccolo without quite a bit of help involved.

The prince shook his head in disappointment, how was it that after everything he had done, he still wasn't as powerful as that low class warrior, his son and a pathetic Namekian? He was once a proud warrior, but recent events had brought him down to nothing, and not even the human warriors feared him any longer. He was reaching the end of his nerve, and as he roared out, the entire landscape shook.

The Oozaru's aura built up to massive proportions as he bent his knees and powered up, the Earth beneath him began to cave inward, and chunks of rock pulled themselves from the ground and rose into the sky.

"**Kakarot!**" Vegeta screamed out "**I was better than you! I could have killed you, and look at me now! A pathetic shell of who I once was!**" The Earth shook around him as his aura exploded into the sky "**The prince of all Saiyans, not even able to reach the transformation that a low class warrior has attained! What kind of joke am I!?**" The great ape shouted out in sheer frustration, causing mountains to begin to quake and crumble around him.

* * *

"Woah, do you feel that?" Krillin said as he ceased his training for a moment.

"That's… that's Vegeta alright." Tien stated, looking over to Scar. There was a smile on his face for some reason, which confused his two pupils immensely.

* * *

As Piccolo meditated in front of a sleeping Gohan, he sensed Vegeta in the distance gaining power. It was strange to him; the pathetic Saiyan who hadn't even reached the super Saiyan transformation was now growing immensely powerful himself, although the Namekian could tell from the power signature that it wasn't from the super Saiyan transformation.

'What the hell is going on?' Piccolo wondered to himself, keeping his mind clear to focus on Vegeta's growing power.

* * *

"**Everything I've worked for has been for nothing!**" Vegeta's voice boomed out across the empty landscape, his head lifted upwards and his entire body began to float into the sky. He outstretched his arms and released a massive shockwave of power from the sheer movement.

"**I refuse to let these fools continue to outdo me!**" He screamed, even larger shockwaves bursting out of his massive aura, crashing into mountains and destroying them with ease. Vegeta clenched his outstretched hands into fists and howled up into the darkening sky.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**" The Oozaru bellowed out, ripping the landscape apart as his power began to grow immensely.

* * *

"V-vegeta?!" Goku shouted out as he floated in the air, stopping completely as he was on his way back to his home. The entire planet seemed to shake around him, which surprised Goku immensely. "He's on the other side of the planet…"

* * *

Piccolo stood at the mouth of the cave he had placed Gohan in, looking out at the landscape as his hands balled into fists. He growled to himself and cursed out loud as the cave itself shook. "This is fucking ridiculous." He said, looking back at Gohan "these Saiyans are full of surprises, I shouldn't have underestimated them."

* * *

As Vegeta continued his Earth shaking roar, his Oozaru form began to shift and change. The muscles became more defined, and his large stature began to slightly shrink, causing the shape of the body to appear more human or Saiyan like in appearance. The midsection also became more muscular, and the hair on the great ape's head began to grow outward.

Even Vegeta himself was shocked at the changes that his body was undergoing, but he didn't stop. He continued to scream upward, the increase in power only adding to the destruction that the landscape was going through.

Vegeta's glowing red eyes began to shift into an off white color, and his tail automatically wrapped itself around Vegeta's massive body. Vegeta's aura finally began to peter out, but as that happened his body began to shift back to its original form. All of the Oozaru's muscles lost their definition and the hair reverted back to its original length. His eyes flickered back to red and he fell to the ground on one knee.

"Wh-what the hell was that?!" Vegeta asked himself, looking at his hands for a moment. "That power was incredible…" The great ape tried to stand up on his two feet but found that he didn't have enough energy to do so. The near transformation had drained him of a massive amount of his energy, but now Vegeta knew that there was something that he could achieve if he trained in this form.

The prince had never once heard of a transformation in the Oozaru state, but he thought to himself that he may have just found a brand new transformation just as Gohan had. From what he could tell, the transformation didn't fully bridge the gap between his and Goku's power, but it was an improvement over being completely powerless. Vegeta chuckled to himself and pressed the button on his belt, reverting back to his normal form.

"Ready yourself Kakarot, I've got a new trick I'm working on." He laughed and raised himself up to his feet, attempting to move his body around to get accustomed to being in his base form once more. No longer would the prince of all Saiyans be a laughing stock, he was finally going to be the threat that he was when he came to Earth nearly two years ago.

* * *

When night had set upon the land that Piccolo was currently inhabiting he made it habit to check on Gohan periodically as he meditated. He wanted to make absolutely sure that he wasn't completely broken and that his psyche was back to normal. The Namekian knew what he would have to do if Gohan turned out to still be the same way he was during the fight, but he sincerely hoped that it didn't have to come to that.

During the day he had thought about a great many things. Bar the incident with Vegeta, nothing serious had come up other than Gohan's fit of rage, and that allowed Piccolo to meditate on what was to come. These androids were getting to be problematic, but he already knew that the chances of finding where they were being made was extremely small. If Scar was to be believed, then the two androids who would show up could somehow defeat the alternate version of Piccolo who had no doubt absorbed Kami, as Piccolo had planned to do that fateful day when he returned to Earth. So if these androids were capable of killing Piccolo at his strongest, he knew that he was going to need more than just Gohan to survive the impending attack. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, Scar was correct, they all would have to work together to thwart this new threat. What would happen after the androids were dealt with, however, would be a different matter entirely.

This business with Cooler threw a wrench in Piccolo's plans, however. The Namekian detested being used, but he had little choice when Cooler had shown him the ships orbiting the planet. Despite the fact that Piccolo hated every last being on the wretched rock, this planet was his home and he wouldn't have it being destroyed by anyone but himself. He could easily leave and never come back, but where would the fun be in that? No, the Namekian had already decided that he would honor Cooler's request, at least until he or the others could find a way to take the fleet patrolling the Earth out of the picture.

As the night went on, Piccolo could hear Gohan twisting and turning more and more, and knew that the time was growing near when he would awake. Standing over the boy as he slept, Piccolo kept his eyes trained on the half Saiyan, hoping that he wouldn't have another fight on his hands.

Piccolo's head perked up when he heard Gohan make a noise. The boy rolled to his side for a moment, then returned to lying on his back. The Namekian took a defensive stance when he saw Gohan's eyes flicker. As they opened up fully, Piccolo kept his stance in the off chance that the boy might attack once more.

Gohan raised his head and looked at Piccolo, blinking a few times in confusion. "M-master? What happened?"

Piccolo stared at the boy for a moment, trying to figure out if he was truly over his psychotic fit. The Namekian could still see the fire burning in Gohan's eyes, but he could also feel his aura was much calmer than it had been during the fight. He dropped his stance and sighed, shaking his head.

"You're one crazy bastard, you know that kid?" Piccolo walked over to the other side of the cave and placed his hand on his forehead "a lot of shit happened, what do you remember?"

Gohan rubbed his eyes and thought for a moment "I… I remember you left me to go find that person who felt like Frieza and I fell asleep."

Piccolo lifted his hand from his forehead and looked over his shoulder at the boy 'He doesn't remember me attacking him? Good, this will work to my advantage.'

"Why do I feel so sore all over?" Gohan asked, moving his left arm up and down, noticing a bandage on his back. "It feels like someone set my back on fire…"

Piccolo walked over and dug something from his belt "Here." He said, handing Gohan a senzu bean "this should make you feel better."

Gohan looked up at Piccolo in confusion, he had almost never been this nice to him before.

"Take it before I change my mind." Gohan quickly snatched the bean from Piccolo and threw it in his mouth. Soon, his entire body felt rejuvenated, and the searing pain in his back disappeared.

"Th-thank you master!" The boy shouted, throwing his covers off of himself and jumping to the ground.

"Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it." Piccolo said, crossing his arms in front of his pupil "I have a lot of things to tell you, some of them you're not going to want to hear."

Gohan nodded and looked around the cave for a bit, noticing that his friend was missing. "Where's Trokar?" He asked, prompting a disappointed head shake from his master. For the next few hours Piccolo explained to Gohan about Cooler and how he was using Piccolo as a tool of war. He showed Gohan the device that Cooler had given to Piccolo in order to communicate with him, and told the boy that should it ever go off, to find his master immediately. After Cooler he talked about Gohan's fit of rage, explaining to the boy that after he had returned from speaking with Cooler, Goku had arrived at the Cave and attempted to take him back home.

"In a fit of rage you broke free from Goku's grip, your power exploded Gohan." Piccolo said, trying to hide any evidence that he was lying about Goku's intervention. "You attacked everyone and everything that you could see." Gohan remained silent, he knew what Piccolo was about to say next, but he didn't want to hear it.

"Trokar tried to help you, but you killed him." Gohan backed into the wall of the cave, shaking his head in denial.

"No… no, I wouldn't do that…" He hit the wall and slumped down, holding his hands over his knees "I wouldn't kill my friend…"

Going against his very nature, Piccolo walked over to the boy and slouched down next to him, placing his arm over Gohan and resting his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"You didn't mean to, don't blame yourself." The Namekian stated, sounding completely sincere. Though in his mind Piccolo was only doing this to further his own evil ends, to Gohan it seemed as if his master was warming up somehow. The boy cried and grabbed onto Piccolo's side, bawling it out as Piccolo pat the boy on the back. "Listen, I came up with an idea I think you'd like to hear." For a moment the child stopped crying and looked up to his master.

"Wh-what is it?" Gohan sniffled as his eyes widened a bit.

"The Dragon Balls will be active again in just under six months; we can wish him back when the time comes." Piccolo explained, hoping to win Gohan back over to his side. Gohan shot up to his feet and looked over out of the cave at the darkness of the night, then back to Piccolo.

"You mean it?" He asked, wiping tears from his face. Piccolo lifted himself back to his feet and nodded at the boy. Gohan laughed and smiled, an image that disgusted Piccolo to the core. However, something inside of him enjoyed the boy's happiness, which only served to revile the evil Namekian further. Gohan ceased his laughing when he thought of how brutal his master had been in the past, and started to wonder why he had such a sudden change of heart now. "I don't get it, why do you want to bring Trokar back?" The boy asked, causing Piccolo to grunt and walk past him.

"He was an excellent minion, and he kept you company. To deprive both of us of his services would be idiotic." Despite the cold answer, Gohan still felt very reassured, he would be getting his friend back, and perhaps he could somehow make it up to him when he returned. "Don't celebrate yet, your training will remain the same, and our plans for the future have changed."

* * *

**What is Piccolo planning? Will Vegeta's newfound power be enough to stand a chance against the androids? And will Jeice's information be able to help kick start a resistance against Cooler's armada of ships? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**A/N: Feel free to ask about this "new form" that Vegeta seems to be close to acquiring. I won't explain too much about it until it's debut, but I may have a Q & A next chapter if I get enough questions. It's going to be a completely non-canon transformation that I made up simply because I thought it was a shame how no one ever explored the Oozaru transformation in canon. I imagine some may have a problem with it, but I assure you that once I explain the details further it will make sense and hopefully seem to fit in with canon.**

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	43. Chapter 38: Coundown to Space

**Chapter 38: Countdown to Space**

Scar sighed heavily as he stood in front of the door to the room in which Jeice had instructed the man to meet earlier in the day. He had approximately one million Zeni in a briefcase that Bulma had provided for him when he told her of his deal with the four aliens, and how the information that Jeice had may be invaluable in dealing with the platoon of ships surrounding the planet. Bulma had no issue in handing over the money; one million Zeni was just a drop in the hat to her family, which was an immense relief for Scar who hated to impose such a request upon her.

A more pressing issue for Scar, however, was merely gathering up the inner strength to talk to the blue haired women in the first place. Seeing her around was becoming increasingly difficult for Scar to bear, the psychological impact of the death of his timelines Bulma was finally taking a toll on him, and seeing this version of his former wife brought up feelings of lust, jealousy and depression. He told no one of these feelings, but he knew that in order to keep the balance of this timeline he could not interfere with Yamcha and Bulma's relationship. However, the fact remained that he was beginning to feel as though he needed to get away from Capsule Corp., away from the temptation and agonizing torture that Scar felt every time he saw her face. Soon he would tell the others of his intentions, and he already knew that they would follow him to the ends of the Earth in order to continue their training.

As all of these thoughts coalesced in his mind, Scar snapped back into reality when he heard something going on from inside of the room. It sounded like two people talking to one another, but Scar couldn't understand what they were saying from where he was standing. He moved in closer and pressed his ear against the door, hoping that he might be able to hear some important information and be able to give Bulma's money back to her.

From what he could make out, Cui was in the middle of a sentence when he pressed his ear to the door.

"… was this brilliant plan you had exactly?" Jeice was the next one to speak.

"Maybe if you all shut up for a minute, I could tell you." Scar raised an eyebrow and looked over at a passing scientist as they directed a quizzical look towards hm. He smiled and shrugged, but the scientists didn't seem to care enough to comment. They then walked away without any further suspicion; as soon as they were out of Scar's field of view, he focused his attention on the conversation.

"We were mercenaries before we all got offed on Namek, and now we 'ave another opportunity!"

"No, you and Guldo were," a familiar feminine voice stated. "Cui and I were just soldiers."

"Speak for yourself, fool! I was a high ranking warrior!" Cui proudly stated. The next few moments were met with silence, but Scar kept his head pressed against the door nonetheless.

"It doesn't matter what you were; now, you're a part of this group now and I'm your Cap'n, you got that?" Jeice asserted confidently. "When Scar shows up with the money, I've come up with a proposal for him. We're all going to help these guys take down Cooler's ships."

"What?!" The other three aliens shouted in unison.

"Are you fucking insane?" Cui shouted softly, though his tone carried a hiss of "Do you have any idea how risky that is?!"

"I know exactly how risky it is, and that's why we're gonna get top dolla' for our efforts," Jeice claimed. "And with all this training we've been doing, no soldier in Coola's army is gonna be able to stand up against us!"

There was another silence in the room, which Scar could only guess was caused by the other aliens mulling over the idea in their head. The human figured that he had heard enough and moved his head back to knock on the door. Mere moments later, the door swung open and standing at the doorway was Jeice.

"Uh, hey, I've got the money," Scar said, lifting the briefcase and handing it to the smirking Jeice. "This information better be worth it."

Jeice sat the money on the bed and opened the case, inside were bills upon bills of Zeni, which seemed to boost the four alien's moods immensely. "I don't think you'll be disappointed, mate." Jeice claimed, shutting the case and turning to the human. Scar walked further into the room and shut the door behind him, taking a good look at the others around him. "Let's start at the beginning shall we?"

"Yes, lets." Scar said, crossing his arms and staring at Jeice intently.

"Well, as you know, Cooler is Frieza's brother, and King… former King Cold's son. What you didn't know is that Cooler is smarter than the rest of his family and has a far more organized army." Jeice sat on the bed behind him and looked over to Guldo "Only reason the Ginyu force ever worked for Frieza was because he paid more, on account of his brutal treatment of soldiers. Cooler is a saint compared to how Frieza was like, but Ginyu had ties with his family, so we all had to go along for the ride." He looked back over to Scar, who seemed genuinely intrigued by his story. "Cooler has never once killed a soldier of his own who didn't deserve it, but the Cold family isn't exactly known for its compassion, and Cooler can be a right basta'd sometimes." The red alien sighed and shook his head. "Salza is his top henchman, and the one of the most dangerous too. He was more powerful than the Cap'n, but not quite as powerful as the person he has guarding this planet."

Scar's look of intrigue turned to confusion "How do you know who's guarding the planet?" Scar asked, hoping that the aliens didn't have some kind of direct communication with Cooler himself.

"It's simple, really..." Jeice stated, waving his hand to the side "Ginyu told the force all about Cooler and his men, and there's one Arcosian who Cooler hates just enough to stick a shit job like guarding a planet to, who's also competent enough to actually do a good job."

"Another Arcosian?" Scar wondered aloud "are they all as strong as Frieza and Cooler?"

"Not nearly." Guldo chimed in.

"Right, Cold's family is a freak case, and Cooler is the last one left," Jeice explained, causing Scar to heave a sigh of relief. "This one though, Ginyu warned us about him. He was… experimented on, the details are sketchy, but needless to say, he's still pretty powerful."

"How powerful are we talking here?" Scar questioned, the other aliens looked towards Jeice curiously as well.

"I'm not sure on the numbers, but he's definitely stronger than Salza, and last time I checked the database Salza's power level was around 160,000."

Scar scoffed. "You're all still stuck on power levels aren't you?" He looked around at the other's faces; none of them looked very positive. "That's what I thought. Power levels are meaningless without skill to back it up; you all need to learn how to sense energies."

"We can do whatever we want," Jeice stated forcefully. "But I suppose you may be right… In any case, you can bet that he won't go down without a fight."

"That's great and all, but can you tell me about the ships themselves? We need a way to get on them, and more importantly, a plan."

"Whoa there!" Jeice said, waving his hands in front of himself. "Planning is your job, not mine. I just give the information."

Scar sighed and nodded. "Right, right. Couldn't ask for anything more anyway."

"Well…" Cui said in nearly a whisper. "I uh, know a few things about the Cold army ship designs…" The four other individuals in the room all looked at Cui in both surprise and interest.

"You didn't strike me as the architect type," Scar stated aloud.

"Yeah, you never told any of us this little detail," Guldo said, crossing his arms.

"It hasn't been important until now." Cui explained, shrugging his shoulders "Frieza employed millions, maybe billions of soldiers, but many of the great ship builders in the galaxy came from races that Planet Trade Organization had nearly wiped out. So instead of searching for mediocre ones, Cold and Frieza saved some of the more brilliant members of the species and had them build some of the most advanced ships the galaxy had to offer."

"And… you were one of those people?" Fiore asked in a rather surprised tone.

"No, of course not..." Cui said, "...But the ones who did design the ships often left glaring design flaws in the blueprints of the ships themselves as a way to get back at Cold's family. So after a while, they started having certain high up soldiers, myself included, check over the blueprints for any design flaws. Needless to say, anyone who let something slip through the cracks was… not treated very nicely, so I was very motivated to do well at my job."

"So then you could help us figure out how to get on, and, more importantly, how to stay hidden on the ship." Scar said, rubbing the bottom of his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, I suppose I could, but I'd need some compensation for my troubles…" As soon as Cui stopped talking, Scar took a single glare at Cui that made him fear for his life "...along with any other service you require, of course!" Cui stated, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Right, what do you say about hirin' us to take down these ships with you, eh?" Jeice asked, looking back at his comrades for a moment. "We are mercenaries after all. You'd have to do the heavy lifting with the Admiral, but we're strong enough that we can take out just about any henchman he sends our way!"

"I… still don't know about that…" Fiore said, turning her head to look at the briefcase full of Zeni "…but maybe I could be convinced?"

Scar shook his head and sighed "I thought maybe you had all changed, guess I was wrong." He closed his eyes and placed his right hand upon his forehead, "At least you're offering to help, that's a start." Scar looked back up at Jeice and nodded "I'll think about it, but I can't guarantee any payment yet."

Jeice threw his fist in the air and brought it down swiftly "Yes! Score one for Team Jeice!" The others didn't seem as enthusiastic about it, however.

"I said 'maybe.' And besides, you still have more information that I need." Scar explained to the red skinned alien.

"Right, of course." Jeice said. "Ask away."

* * *

On almost the opposite side of the building, Vegeta laid in the bed provided to him by Bulma's family. His breakthrough earlier in the day was astonishing, but he knew that he would have to train harder than ever before if he wanted to try and attain the form once more. Never before had he ever heard of a Saiyan's Oozaru state changing form like what he had witnessed just hours ago. He knew that the only reason he couldn't reach it quite yet was because he hadn't trained in his Oozaru state in quite a while, but that was about to change, and the Prince of all Saiyans finally knew that it was going to be his turn to show the half breed and that Namekian who was the most powerful being in the universe.

As Vegeta grinned and reminisced on his past as a ruthless Saiyan warrior, another thought popped up in his mind. It was a surprise to him, not that he had just started to think about it, but that he hadn't thought about it before now. He had been so focused on his own training that he had neglected to think of his sex life at all. Before Vegeta had come to Earth, he always had a way to relieve himself if the thought came into his mind. Frieza owned a great deal of planets, and none of them were short on brothels and whore houses. Frieza had no rules against doing rather unsavory things to the people of the planets that were being taken over either, but despite the atrocities he had committed in his life, Vegeta actually did feel terrible for the things he had done to some of the people and was trying not to think about it all that much.

Vegeta kept this all to himself, of course; if anyone else had known about how dark his past was, he would be ousted immediately and not be allowed to even set foot within a human colony, but the fact of the matter was that now that he had begun to think about it, the thought was going to bother him for some time. Immediately, one woman came to his mind: the blue haired woman that had seemed so keen on speaking with him. He found her to be quite attractive, but he also knew that the fool Yamcha was her mate, and that he already disliked Vegeta for talking with Bulma so frequently. If they were on planet Vegeta, the prince could have just killed him for the woman and no one would have batted an eye, but it seemed that the Earthlings had separate mating rituals than the Saiyan's did. Nevertheless, he wanted her, and Yamcha was in the way. He knew of their relationship problems, most likely stemming from the one that claimed to be from the future, and Vegeta knew exactly how to exploit Bulma so that she would choose him over that idiot Yamcha.

He smirked silently. Everything was going to go his way, and he knew it. And if it didn't, Vegeta would force it to. He was tired of playing around with human politics, and now he was going to test the very limits of his patience with this plan of his. He would continue with training as per normal - after all, no one woman was worth giving up absolute power - but he would make sure that he would have her by the end of the year.

Vegeta drifted off into sleep with a broad smile across his face.

* * *

The Capsule Corporation had never been quite so busy before, ships were being developed, warriors were training for whatever the future held, and Vegeta was testing the very limits of the gravity chambers with his new Oozaru form. He had put in a request for a larger gravity chamber so that he could hone his skills, and Dr. Brief obliged at the behest of both Scar and Goku. Everyone was busy doing something, Goku took over training Tien, Yamcha and Krillin while Scar planned with Jeice and his men about how best to handle the situation with Coolers squad of ships trained on Earth. Vegeta trained as mercilessly as he plotted, and Bulma and her father had begun designing and building new ships with stealth systems, all with the help of a surprising ally, Cui.

Of all of the members of Jeice's squad, Cui was easily the most bogged down in work. After Dr. Brief had scanned the squad of ships on one of their relays around Earth, Cui was tasked with finding out all of the weaknesses and opening in the ships that they could abuse. His past dealings with supervising ship buildings was turning out to be a blessing to all involved, as without his knowledge the group may have very well not been able to plan an assault on the ships in the first place. Of course Cui was profiting greatly from this as well, but he knew that it was in his best interest to help these people if there was no way he could leave Earth.

After Cui was finished analyzing the scans of the ships, he knew that in order for an assault on the squadron of ships to be possible, stealthy space faring vessels would have to be built. He volunteered to supervise the construction of said ship with Bulma and Dr. Brief, and despite his dark past and general demeanor, Bulma admitted that he wasn't that difficult to work with, and he even surprised Dr. Brief with his intelligence. Everybody seemed to be surprised that Cui was more than just a weak soldier, but Cui tried his best to not let everyone's pre-conceived notions of him get in the way; after all, there was Zeni to be made.

Although several attempts had been made to contact Piccolo and Gohan, neither of them answered. Piccolo knew exactly what they were planning at that point, and had thought about assisting them several times, but decided that training his pupil and staying out of this foolish war that was about to be brought on was for the best. If push came to shove, he would do whatever it took to keep Earth from being destroyed, but he thought that the humans and their allies would be able to deal with the situation, all while Piccolo and Gohan grew stronger by the day. It was nothing but a distraction, as Piccolo knew what kind of person Cooler was. In fact, his father was much like Cooler when he was alive: power hungry, willing to do whatever it took to gain more power, and wouldn't hesitate to use anything and everything to hold that power. Cooler was slightly different in that his power came from the minions that he controlled, and by controlling Piccolo, the Namekian knew that Cooler thought that he had already won. He was wrong.

Months of planning, building and training had finally paid off when Scar and Jeice finally decided that they had come up with a strategy that they believed would be able to work out. They wanted to wait until the plan was finalized before revealing it to the group, and now they were in the last stages of planning. The ships were nearly done, Goku and the others had made some progress whilst training, and Vegeta had already regained total control of his Oozaru form, although he still couldn't quite reach the form that he had attained the day that Cooler had arrived. As Scar and Jeice stood over the table with the scans of Cooler's ships, they both sighed and nodded when they realized that there was nothing more that they could possibly do. Everything was nearly ready to go, and now all they had to do was relay the plan to all of those involved. Bulma and Dr. Brief already knew everything; the only people that they needed to talk to were the ones that they planned on sending on Dr. Brief's ships to infiltrate the squadron hovering around Earth.

"Are you sure that there's nothing else you can tell me?" Scar asked for the third time, scanning over the piece of paper that he had in front of him.

"Like I said, I have no reason to hide anything from you." Jeice assured the man "we're ready, now we need to make sure they're ready." Scar closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I don't know Jeice, this all seems like a long shot to me." The scarred man said, tilting his head to the floor "I know that these ships have the power to destroy Earth, but they won't do that unless Piccolo betrays Cooler, right?"

Jeice looked upward for a moment in thought and then shook his head in declination. "Cooler might seem like a better man than Frieza, but he's just as heartless. If he even thinks for one moment that the Namek would betray 'im, he'd give the order."

Scar sighed once more and shook his head "Then I guess this is the right thing to do."

In a rare moment of compassion, Jeice placed his hand on Scar's back "Don't worry, mate, we've got your back." Scar looked over and smiled slightly, nodding back at the red alien. "I'll go round up the rest of the team; you go get Goku and all them."

"Right, meet back here as soon as possible," Scar said, turning back to the scans and looking at them for a brief moment before turning and heading towards the hallway.

He had told the group about the general plan, but now was the time for specifics. Tien, Krillin, Yamcha and Goku were all ready and willing to help with the plan, as were Jeice and his men. Chiaotzu also volunteered, but Tien talked him down and convinced him that he would be better off staying on Earth when the group went into space. Scar had also attempted to convince Vegeta to help the group, but when confronted the Saiyan merely scoffed and went about his business. The scarred man didn't exactly know what that meant, but he doubted that the prince would merely brush this matter aside and let someone else handle it.

As he turned a corner, Scar spotted Vegeta leaning up against a wall, speaking with Bulma, who seemed to be laughing and having a good time. He walked up to the two of them and looked directly at Vegeta.

"I was hoping to talk to you, Vegeta," Scar stated, with minor annoyance in his voice. Bulma picked up on it and started walking down the hallway.

"Oh I uh… forgot something in the lab. Are you having that meeting today?" She asked Scar, who turned his head to her and nodded. "See you there then!" She waved and ran down the hall, cheeks full of blush.

Scar shook his head and slowly turned it to Vegeta, his eyes narrowed in a vain attempt to intimidate the prince, but the Saiyan merely chuckled.

"Calm yourself 'Scar', we were merely speaking." Vegeta placed his hand on Scar's left shoulder in order to push him out of the way, but was surprised when the man quickly raised his right arm and caught Vegeta by the wrist, squeezing down on it. "Agh!" Vegeta shouted, pulling his arm back as quickly as he could.

"Stay away from her." Scar ordered, releasing his hand from Vegeta's wrist "or I'll do worse things to you than you've ever done to anyone else."

"Ha, like you know even half of what I've been through." Vegeta said, rubbing his wrist lightly and letting his arm fall to his side.

"I know enough, but that's not why I'm here." Scar continued to stare directly into Vegeta's as he spoke "I need you to come to a meeting in the lab area, we're discussing our plans to take over Cooler's ships."

Vegeta's smile faded and turned to one of disgust. "What makes you think I'd even consider helping you or your pathetic planet?"

Scar laughed lightly and shook his head "because if we fail, you're dead." He stated, beginning to walk away from the prince "simple as that." Vegeta snarled and slammed his fist into the wall, denting it as Scar merely walked on.

The room with the gravity chambers was only a short walk from where Vegeta was, and when he arrived he was pleased to see that Goku, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin were already training. He walked up the chamber and tapped on the door a few times, peering in to find that all four of the fighters were in a rigorous bout.

Although he would have enjoyed watching them fight, Scar knew that Jeice would be waiting for him back in the room. He knocked once more on the door, getting no response once again. The four of them were obviously very into their training at the moment. The man from the future sighed and pressed a button that opened the door, causing the four fighters to stop what they were doing and focus their attention on the opening door.

"Oh hey Scar!" Goku shouted, wiping some sweat from his brow. "Decided to do some training with us today, huh?"

The man shook his head "not today Goku. Jeice, Cui and I have finished our plans. We need to explain to you all what's going down."

"Already?" Krillin asked, nervously scratching the back of his neck "I uh… I thought we'd have more time to train you know?"

"Same here, I haven't even caught up to Krillin yet!" Yamcha exclaimed, grabbing a towel and damping his forehead. Tien looked as if he had something to say, but he was panting so hard that he wasn't able to get a word out. It was obvious that Goku was pushing him to his very limits, and Scar didn't mind one bit.

"It doesn't matter. If Piccolo betrays Cooler, our powers will mean nothing against an entire army of ships." Scar explained. Krillin raised his hand up, but quickly abstained and made a grunting noise.

"I guess you're right about that." The bald monk admitted, chuckling to himself "I'm just not keen on the idea of going into space to fight a bunch of monsters is all."

"They aren't monsters, Krillin, they're soldiers." Tien managed to get out, taking a sip of water soon after.

"Well yeah but… you saw that King Cold guy right? He looked a little too much like a monster for me!" Scar shook his head and sighed.

"Trust me Krillin, you have no idea what a true monster looks like." The short fighter opened his mouth, but quickly snapped it shut when he realized what Scar was talking about. "Look, it doesn't matter. Jeice is waiting for us, we need to get going."

"You got it." Tien said as he cracked his neck "I'm ready to finally put this training to the test."

* * *

The five of them made it to the room in a short amount of time, and already waiting for them were Jeice and his men, Bulma, Dr. Brief and to Scar's mild surprise, even Vegeta. Cui, Jeice and Bulma were at one side of the table while Fiore and Guldo were on the other. Vegeta was leaning against the wall with a distained look upon his face, and Dr. Brief seemed to be looking over the schematics of the ships that his team had been building for the past few months. Goku and Scar took to the side that Jeice was on while Krillin took to the opposite, and Tien and Yamcha stood on the ends of the table. In front of all of them were the scans of the three major ships orbiting around Earth.

"Welcome back mate." Jeice said, turning to look at Fiore and Guldo "now we can get this party started!"

"Who wants to go first?" Bulma asked, looking at Cui first, and then towards Scar and Jeice.

"I'll go over the recap, and then Cui can explain what's going on with the ships." Scar said, prompting a nod from Cui. He cleared his throat and looked down at the table for a moment before looking back up. "As you all well know, Cooler came for a visit a few months ago and left us a present. This group of ships that you see before you belong to him, and if we don't do something about it, we may very well be looking at a war with Cooler himself that we can't possibly win. This is why we're doing this, we can't trust Piccolo to obey Coolers orders any more than we can trust him to help us take down these ships. Now we've come up with a general plan to send a few teams into space, three teams in fact that will board the three main ships orbiting Earth."

"Why board the damn things when you could just destroy them?!" Vegeta interrupted "we're all powerful enough to do it by now, and it would save us a lot of time."

"You don't think Cooler's gonna notice an entire squad of ships missing?" Jeice asked the Saiyan prince "come on Vegeta, I thought you we're smarter than that."

"Then what the hell are we doing up there? Picking flowers and hoping they accept them as peace offerings?" The Saiyan yelled out agitatedly.

"Maybe if you'd shut up and listen you wouldn't have to ask all these questions!" Cui shouted, balling his hands into fists.

Vegeta shook his head and smirked "Oh ho, you're lucky I don't rip out your intestines Cui." He took a single step towards the purple alien with a fist raised, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"Stand down, Cui. We aren't getting' paid to put down this filthy monkey." Jeice said, glaring straight at Vegeta "he's not worth our time."

"How dare you insult the Saiyan race!" Vegeta yelled, turning his attention to Goku "you're just going to let him mock us Kakarot?" After Goku remained silent for a few moments, Vegeta scoffed and lowered his stance, beginning to walk out of the room. "This was a mistake from the start." In an instant, Scar was directly in front of the door, blocking Vegeta's path.

"I don't care what kind of history you have with those two, you're staying and listening to this whether you like it or not."

"I'd rather die than stay in a room with these idiots!" Vegeta shouted, growing more and more angry by the second.

"I'm sure that can be arranged!" Guldo piped in, prompting a nasty glare from Fiore.

"Everyone needs to calm down!" Krillin yelled out.

"We're not getting anywhere by arguing with each other." Goku agreed, placing a hand on Jeice's shoulder.

Vegeta turned to face the only other full blooded member of his race and shook his head with sheer disgust "you're even worse than those two, Kakarot. Defending those who insult your race? You are no Saiyan."

Goku looked Vegeta dead in the eye "no, no I'm not." Vegeta huffed out in anger and turned around to face Scar.

"I'll have nothing to do with any of you!" Vegeta shouted "now let me go before I do something we're all going to regret!" Scar looked at Vegeta for a moment before he sighed and reluctantly let him out the door. He walked back to the table and knelt over it, placing his elbows on the flat surface while resting his forehead on his right palm.

"Great, this is just perfect." Scar said aloud.

"Good riddance." Cui said, Jeice nodded in agreement as well as Guldo.

"Shut up, Cui." Scar ordered in slight anger "learn to keep your damn mouth shut next time. Same goes for you Jeice." Cui just about shouted back at Scar when Jeice lifted his hand in front of his face, ordering him not to talk. "Alright, with that out of the way maybe we can get through this plan without someone else walking out."

The others in the room all looked around at each other before Scar continued.

"Now that Vegeta left, there's a hole in one of the teams that needs to be filled." Scar claimed, looking over at the door to the room as if he had heard something "I can only think of a few…" The door burst open and from it came two individuals, Chiaotzu and Lod.

"I'm going with Tien!" The small fighter shouted.

"Lod come too!" The Saibamen chimed in, eager to test his training.

"No Chiaotzu, I already told you that this mission will be too dangerous." Tien stated "I don't know if we'll be able to revive you again without access to the Namekian Dragon Balls."

"Same goes for you, Tien. I don't wanna lose you like I did last time!" Chiaotzu shouted, prompting Tien to shake his head in disappointment.

"I hate to say it, Tien, but we really do need all the help we can get." Scar said, bringing a smile to Chiaotzu's face "and he's been training just like you have. I say we let him and the Saibamen take Vegeta's place on a team."

Tien looked at Scar with a scowl, but ultimately came to the same conclusion that it would be best for the mission. "Fine, but if Chiaotzu is hurt in any way…"

"It's a risk we have to take." Scar stated. "If we have any manpower to spare, we need to use it to save this planet from those ships." Chiaotzu happily floated into the air and took his place at the table next to Tien, while Lod walked on over to Bulma and stood on his tiptoes to see the blueprints ahead of him. "I'll go over the teams now. Squad leaders will be Jeice, Tien and Krillin."

"Ah, do you really think I'm cut out for that?" Krillin asked timidly, twiddling his thumbs.

"Why would I have given you the position if I didn't think you were capable of it?" Scar asked.

Krillin laughed nervously and replied "I guess you're right, I've just never seen myself as a leader, you know?"

"Don't worry, Krillin, you'll all be given specific orders from Cui about what you are to do while you're on the ship. He's been studying the space crafts for a while now and knows their layout better than anyone. We have headsets for all of you that will be able to broadcast all the way into outer space, so you won't be alone while you're up there." Krillin felt slightly relieved, but was still anxious about the whole situation. "Jeice will only have one other person accompanying him on this mission, and that will be you, Yamcha."

"Wait, you expect me to take orders from this guy?!" Yamcha shook his head in disagreement "I could beat this guy to a pulp in minutes."

"It isn't about how strong you are, Yamcha, it's about how good your leadership is." Scar claimed "and Jeice was the 2nd in command of the Ginyu Squad for many years. He knows these soldiers better than all of us; he'll be the one that knows what to do in a certain situation." Yamcha turned his head and grunted, but had otherwise accepted his role. "Accompanying Tien will be Chiaotzu and Fiore." The three of them nodded and allowed Scar to continue "no arguments? Well alright, onto the last squad. Krillin, you'll be taking Guldo and Lod with you. Guldo has some interesting powers at his disposal that you'll be able to use to get past guards. Or to take them out. It's up to you how you do the mission as long as you get it done."

"Wait, what about me?" Goku asked curiously, having not heard his name in any of the squads.

"You'll be staying on Earth with Cui and I, just in case the main ship decides to fire its super laser at us. And since we're the strongest two here, we're the only ones with a chance to stop the laser if it starts heading towards Earth." Goku was disappointed that he wouldn't get to fight anyone, but accepted his role nonetheless. "Does anyone have any questions before we continue?" After a brief silence, Scar continued "The mission itself is simple, get to the control bridge and make sure that no communications are sent back to Cooler. If Cooler knows that these ships have been stolen by us, you can bet that he won't be very happy about it." Scar looked over to Jeice, and then back to the blueprints "make sure that you leave at least one of the henchman alive, preferably a high ranking one that can give false information to Cooler once the ships are in our control. Bulma and Dr. Brief have worked on a way to cut off their communications, and have a few devices that might work, but we still don't want to take any chances. Cui, will you tell them all about the blueprints of the ship now?"

The purple alien nodded and walked in front of a blueprint that was hanging on the wall in front of the fighters. After a while of explaining in detail the entirety of the ship, he pointed out the point of entrance, the control bridge and places that should be avoided at all costs. He did this once more for a slightly different ship, one that he explained would most likely be holding the Admiral of the fleet. After he was finished with his explanations, Scar walked back up in front of everyone and looked around the room to make sure everyone was on the same page. Surprised that there were no looks of confusion, Scar began to speak once more.

"One more important thing you all need to know is that the Admiral of this fleet is of the same race as Cooler and Frieza."

"Wait, what?!" Krillin shouted, completely shocked by this revelation.

"Don't worry Krillin, he isn't as powerful as Frieza or his family members." Scar stated.

"Right, in fact I'm bettin' that one of you could take him down." Jeice said confidently, looking straight at Tien "that's why we're sending the strongest one of you to the main ship."

"Wait, you want me to be the one to fight this guy?" Tien's face contorted into one of great surprise.

"Don't look like that, mate, you've been trainin' harder than any of us!" Jeice claimed, placing a hand on the back of his head.

"I know but… if I'm going on the main ship, I don't want Chiaotzu going with me."

"What are you talking about Tien?" Chiaotzu tugged at his arm lightly.

"The main ship will be the most guarded, I want Chiaotzu in the least amount of danger possible." Tien ordered, causing Scar to nod his head.

"Alright, I understand. Chiaotzu will switch places with Lod." Scar stated.

"But Tien-"

"No but's Chiaotzu, I don't want you on the most dangerous ship."

"I can handle it Tien, I'm not a kid!"

"I know that Chiaotzu, just please, do as I ask." The small fighter nodded and looked back down at the blueprints, very disappointed that he wouldn't be able to go with his friend.

The rest of the time they spent talking about the specifics of the mission, which took a good few hours. After they had all finished talking about the mission at hand, Krillin wondered one last thing.

"When are we going to be going on this… ah, mission?" The bald fighter asked.

"As soon as possible." Scar stated "I was hoping before the end of this week, so four days from now."

"That's a little short notice, don't you think?" Krillin wondered aloud.

"The sooner we get this done, the better off we are." The scarred man shook his head "I'm just as concerned as you are, Krillin. Don't worry, I've taught you well."

After that, everyone exited the room and went about their business. Scar continued to train with Goku, Yamcha, Tien and Krillin while Cui refined a strategy with Jeice at the behest of Bulma, who promised them further profits if everyone came back alive. While Scar sat in his bed the next morning, exhausted from the day of rigorous training with the others, he heard a loud knock on his door. He sat up on his bed and told whoever it was to come in.

"I want in on the mission." A familiar voice stated while Scar rubbed his eyes.

"Vegeta?!" Scar exclaimed in surprise "what happened to 'I can't stand any of you'."

"That is my business alone, now will you let me into the mission or not?" Scar thought for a moment before nodding his head.

"Fine, but you're going to have to work with us, not against us."

Vegeta scoffed and shook his head "I'm not an idiot. Tell me when we depart and I'll be there, but don't expect me to think twice about ending that pathetic maggot Cui or his friends if he gets in my way."

"Just be in the same room we had the briefing on Saturday at 7 am. We'll be briefing everyone again, and you need to know some of this information."

Vegeta chucked and turned around "whatever you say." Scar sighed and rubbed his eyes again, wondering why Vegeta had suddenly decided to come back to the mission.

* * *

The time had finally come, three days passed more quickly than anyone would have liked. Vegeta kept his word and showed up to the briefing, where he was assigned to Tien's squad, and Lod transferred to Jeice's. Dr. Brief explained quickly about how the ship worked, and that it would be on autopilot until they reached their destination. According to his calculations, if Coolers ships weren't able to spot them, then they would reach the ships in less than 2 hours. The cloaking device would activate as soon as take-off, so that no radar would be able to pick them up.

Scar made sure to remind everyone of what was at stake before they walked onto the ships, and how important it was that they succeeded. If they didn't, the world may very well be obliterated. Krillin and some of Jeice's men were still worried that perhaps they were putting the world in more danger than was necessary, but Scar was convinced that Piccolo couldn't be trusted to keep his bargain, and he wasn't about to let another tragedy befall Earth again. As they all loaded into their ships that were sitting just outside of Capsule Corp., Goku bid Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu and Krillin a fond farewell.

"I know you guys have it in you to make this happen." Goku said the four of them "You've all been training hard. I'll be rooting for you!"

"Thanks Goku, you're a real pal." Yamcha said warmly, shaking Goku's hand and getting into his ship with Jeice.

"That means a lot coming from you. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to Earth." Tien confidently declared, grabbing Goku's hand as he lifted it up in front of Tien in a sign of respect. Tien then walked off to his ship as Krillin and Chiaotzu stood in front of the Saiyan, not sure what to say.

"Don't worry you two; everything is going to be fine." Goku stated.

"That's easy for you to say, you're not going into outer space to fight aliens!" Krillin said in slight panic, calming himself down quickly "but you're right, I think I'm ready for something like this."

Chiaotzu nodded in agreement "so am I!"

"That's the spirit! Now both of you get up there and save Earth!" they both nodded and began to head towards their ships. Goku and Scar both watched in awe, and thought they would keep it to themselves, in fear for their friends, as the countdown to lift-off began.

'Good luck, I'll be waiting for you when you get back.' Scar thought to himself, wishing that he could have gone with them.

* * *

**The battle over Earth is about to begin! Will good triumph over evil? Will Tien be a match for this mysterious Arcosian? Find out next time on _Piccolo's Choice!_**

* * *

**Long hiatus over, yay! Terribly sorry about that, there's no excuse for how long I've held off writing this story. Supersaiyaninfinitygohan was the one that kept nudging me to continue with the story, so if you want to thank him for that I highly suggest reading some of his fics, including but not limited to: Android 1, Ultimate Tenkaichi: A New Hero, Saiyaman and more!**

**I would also like you all to know about a project that many different fan fiction authors, myself included, are working on. The title right now is Dragon Ball Multiverse 2, inspired by the popular Dragon Ball Z fan manga of the same name (minus the 2). The name will be changed later, but for now that's what we have as the title. Authors from such popular fics as Bringer of Death, Break Through the Limit, Gohan: The Fallen Hero, Guardian(we have two fics titled this, written by Mr. Arkham and Super Vegetarott) and more are collaborating for this one, huge project that we all have very high hopes for. If you want to support us and get the word out, that would be very appreciated, as we could use all the help we can get. I know I can't put URL's in here, so if you want to find the official forum that we're using to work on the project, all you need to do is type in DBM2 Forum in Google and it should be the first result on the screen.**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: Super Vegetarott**


	44. Chapter 39: Infiltration

**Chapter 39: Infiltration**

_**Capsule Corp., 9 hours before launch…**_

Vegeta rested his arm against the wall, staring out of his window at the cold, dark night. Everything seemed so peaceful, so serene. If he had the option to do so, he would wipe out the entire garden without so much as a second though. However, all he could do now was grimace and think back to his home planet. Everything had changed; he was no longer the prince he had claimed to be. Kakarot was the last remaining full blooded Saiyan left on Earth, and Vegeta almost couldn't bring himself to think of that primitive beast Gohan as a Saiyan. He was without discipline, raised on a pathetic planet by a weak Saiyan and a Namekian. But he was powerful, and Vegeta knew that future events would likely be determined by how the boy would grow as a person.

Despite still having a link to his Saiyan people in Kakarot, Vegeta knew that the fool had already denounced any and all relation to his people. Kakarot had his own tail permanently removed, and had become so submissive to the point that he would do anything to protect the planet where he was born and raised. No words could describe the feeling of hatred that Vegeta felt for Goku when the Saiyan told Vegeta that he wasn't a Saiyan at all, in fact had Vegeta stayed in the room any longer, he was sure he would have tried to destroy everyone at Capsule Corp. altogether, but he knew how foolish an action that would have been.

By nature, Vegeta was never one to do things on the fly. He was always planning, always trying to be one step ahead of the competition. When he had left the briefing a few days ago in a fit of anger, he knew he had made a terrible mistake in refusing to go with the others. In truth, he didn't care about Earth in the slightest, but he did care about his own survival. It would be idiotic to leave his fate in the hands of people he didn't even like, or trust. Of course, that was just the beginning, Vegeta also knew that, being as strong as he was, he would most definitely be facing some of the greatest challenges aboard the ship. From what he remembered of Frieza and Cooler's tactics, he knew that they would often have very powerful commanders and admirals aboard highly important ships. No doubt Cooler would leave behind someone of great importance to guard the Earth, and what better way to test his new training than on a powerful member of Cooler's army?

After he had reconsidered his options, he went back to listen to the rest of the operation in secret, leaning up against the door and taking in as much information as possible. He was correct about the powerful admiral aboard the ship, and he knew that if he were to accompany the teams that he would most definitely be placed with Tien, as he was the strongest human that they had to offer. This Arcosian sounded like the perfect opponent, a substitute of sorts to Frieza, whom he had never actually had the chance to kill. More importantly, however, was the formation of the teams.

He listened very carefully to every word spoken, and after gaining all of the knowledge he needed, Vegeta walked away with a smirk on his face, knowing exactly how his plans would finally come to fruition.

He of course told Scar of his intention to join the teams on their mission, and as predicted he was placed with Tien and Fiore on the main ship. So far everything panned out as he wanted it to, but there was one more matter of business to attend to. A visit that he had been wanting to make for the past few days, but needed to wait for until now. Vegeta tore his eyes away from the darkness of the night and stepped out of his room, making his way past rooms, scientists and even Tien at one point on his way to his destination.

Only a few minutes had passed before he reached the room. He knocked quite loudly on the door three times, waiting for a moment before the door was answered.

"Wh-what the 'ell do you want?" Jeice asked in surprise, nearly backing away at the sight of Vegeta "gettin' scared before the launch? I always knew you Saiyan's were pansies."

"Shut your mouth, you insolent dog!" Vegeta nearly shouted as he punched Jeice hard in the gut, sending the red skinned alien reeling back in pain. Vegeta looked back to make sure no one had noticed his action, and then walked into the room, closing the door behind him. "Not so tough now, are you?" The prince chuckled, grabbing onto Jeice's neck and pinning him against a nearby wall. "I have a proposition for you, if you don't mind." Both of Jeice's hands wrapped themselves around Vegeta's arm as his windpipe began to feel the pressure of Vegeta's harsh grip.

Jeice struggled to speak, and was able to cough something out, "Y-you… f-fu-"

"Great, now listen carefully or I'll crush the very life out of you." Vegeta stated, keeping his firm grip on Jeice's neck. "You're going with that fool, Yamcha, tomorrow. Correct?" Jeice nodded through the pain that he was feeling "good, good. Now, how about I let you in on a little secret." The Saiyan leaned in closer to Jeice and nearly whispered "I want him dead." He then moved back to his original position "you're going to help me with that, or you're going to wish that Scar had killed you when he took out Ginyu. Got that?" Jeice nodded his head once more, prompting Vegeta to release him from his grip.

"Wh-what do you need me to… to do." Jeice coughed out, slumping down on the wall as he held his right hand around his neck.

"Make him trust you, then when his back is turned, kill him." Vegeta said, confident that Jeice would agree to his plan.

The white haired alien coughed out once more and rested his head against the wall for a moment, regaining his breath "You think it's just gonna be that easy?"

The Saiyan smirked and chuckled "no, but if you fail, you can expect that I won't be very pleased."

"Why should I do anything you tell me to do. If I tell Scar or Goku what you just did, you'd-"

"You think I care? I've lost everything. My planet, my people, my heritage. Everything I ever stood for is in ashes; I didn't even get to avenge my race. I want one thing, and if I don't get it, you'll be the first person I decide to kill." Vegeta turned around and walked to the door, stopping as he rested his hand on the handle. "Oh, and I wouldn't come back after that if I were you. Take the ship and go for all I care, I just don't want to see your miserable face again. And if you so much as tell another soul of what I just said, I'll make sure you suffer a fate worse than death itself."

As Vegeta left the room, Jeice coughed out in pain and cursed out rather loudly. He wasn't sure what he should do, but if he knew Vegeta as well as he thought he did, then the Saiyan would stay true to his word for sure.

"Damn Saiyan" Jeice coughed out "just when I thought I had it goin' good…"

* * *

_**On board Jeice's ship, just after takeoff…**_

Yamcha, Lod and Jeice watched out the window as their space craft made its way out of the planets orbit. It was truly a sight to behold, and both Lod and Yamcha were mesmerized. It was nothing that Jeice hadn't already seen before, so he merely regarded it with mild intrigue. Instead, his mind was more on what lay in store for him in the next few hours. Although he hated to admit it to himself, he was rather afraid of Vegeta and the power he had gained. Even though Jeice had been leagues above him a mere 2 years ago, in just a short span of time Vegeta had increased his power exponentially. At first Jeice had thought little of it, but now it had become something of a problem. He wasn't sure how strong these Saiyan's could get, but he knew that the other Saiyans Gohan and Goku had already achieved a level of power that Jeice and his men couldn't even fathom. It was enough to bring down King Cold and Lord Frieza, two of the galaxies most powerful beings whom had never even been threatened before. If Vegeta could attain such power, there was no guarantee that he would use it for the betterment of planet Earth. More likely he would attempt to conquer it, or at least that was what Jeice suspected would be the most likely outcome. In any event, he wasn't eager to find out how serious Vegeta was about this whole 'Yamcha killing' business he had discussed earlier.

After exiting Earth's atmosphere, the stealth systems kicked in and a screen popped up in front of the ships front window. On it was Cui, looking around the edges of the camera to set it up properly. After a few seconds of tweaking, he sighed and shook his head.

"Looks like that's as good as it gets." Cui stated, sounding a bit staticy over the video projection. "Alright, listen up. In just a short time you'll be docking with the Admiral's ships. We have for each of you specially made headsets that will allow us to easily communicate with you and give you directions throughout the ship. They should be in the compartment beside your seats. Grab them and put them on as soon as possible." All three of the people aboard the ship attached the headsets to themselves, looking at each other to make sure that everyone was following directions.

"To turn it on, flip the switch on the side. After that, I will be able to communicate with each team directly. You can communicate back to me, but keep in mind that only your own team and I will be able to hear you. Only I have the ability to choose which team I talk to." Cui stated, causing some minor confusion among some of the passengers of the three ships.

"That's not all!" Bulma stated, butting into the picture with Cui "There's also a scouter for each of you, it has the blueprints of the ship downloaded onto it, so you'll all know which way to go once you're on the ships."

* * *

"How nostalgic." Vegeta said, lifting the scouter up and placing it on his head "although I think I'd go mad if I had to listen to Cui's voice for much longer."

"Just do it Vegeta, the fate of Earth rests in our hands," Tien ordered. Vegeta merely scoffed.

"I'm here to fight, not save your pathetic planet. And certainly not to take orders from _you_." The Saiyan lifted the headset from its compartment and crushed it in his hand, throwing the pieces to the side of the ship. "I couldn't care less if both of you died, as long as I get to test out my new training."

Tien grit his teeth and pried his eyes away from Vegeta, putting his full attention on the window staring up into space.

"That wasn't very nice." Fiore stated, clicking on her own headset.

"Does it look like I care what you think?" Vegeta said, crossing his arms and smirking. Fiore shrugged and shook her head.

'At least you get to be with the hunk.' She told herself, looking at Tien in minor adoration 'too bad that egghead Vegeta is going to get us both killed.'

"Are you alright?" Tien asked, looking back at the soldier as she snapped back into reality.

"Oh, yeah, just… tacticisizing. In my head." She quickly stated, cursing herself for her use of a nonexistent word.

"Right. Just don't get too caught up, we'll be there shortly." Tien said, somewhat confused "just because you aren't as powerful as Vegeta or I doesn't mean that you aren't important to the mission."

"Pah, neither of you are important at all." Vegeta insulted "I'll be the one doing all of the work anyway."

"You'll listen to me, Vegeta, or you'll end up being thrown out the airlock." Tien threatened, looking directly at the Saiyan "I won't let anyone jeopardize this mission. Earth is too important."

Vegeta grunted and remained silent, causing Tien to grin slightly. He turned at looked back at Fiore, who was also smiling slightly.

"Don't let him get to you. He might act all tough, but he's got a soft side." Tien mocked, infuriating the Saiyan prince greatly.

* * *

"Oh boy…" Krillin nervously said as his ship neared its destination. "What have I gotten myself into now…"

"You whine too much." Guldo scolded as he leaned back in his chair "we'll be fine, just you wait and see. Cui knows what he's doing. I think."

"You think?!" Krillin shouted out, startling Chiaotzu.

"Calm down Krillin, we'll be alright!" The small fighter said, "Tien is going to take out their leader, we just have to handle the small guys!"

"The small guys. Right." Krillin said, attempting to reassure himself. "I've just never really been big on the whole 'space travel' to fight powerful monsters deal."

"Oh come on, the other members of the Ginyu Force and I did this all the time!" The green alien stated, pumping his fist into the air "we were the most elite fighting force in the galaxy! No one could beat us!"

"Until, you know, Piccolo." Krillin said, shuddering at the thought of the evil Namekian.

"That doesn't matter." Guldo stated, lowering his fist "you're more powerful than even Ginyu now, so I wouldn't be worried if I were you. Besides, you've got Guldo fighting at your side, with my time stopping powers what could go wrong?" He grinned and relaxed in his chair a bit more as Krillin and Chiaotzu looked at each other with concerned faces.

"Yeah, just don't get too cocky," Chiaotzu advised "Tien always says that-"

"Me? Cocky?" Guldo laughed out, releasing a few snorts before continuing "I'm just being honest. I'll bet you both ten thousand Zeni that we'll all get out of this in one piece."

"Rather not bet on my life, thanks." Krillin said, turning his attention to the fleet of ships that he was approaching. "Guess this is it… let's do this!" He shouted, giving himself a bit more confidence.

* * *

Scar and Goku were both overlooking the plans to the main ship when Bulma walked over to the table.

"You guys both looked a little worried, thought I might bring you something to eat." She held out two plates with sandwiches on them, but only Goku took it. He finished it rather quickly, and was right back on task. "You sure you don't want any?" She asked the scarred man, who lifted his hand in refusal. She nodded and placed the plate on the table next to the plans.

"We found the location where the main ship is floating above Earth." The blue haired woman stated, prompting Scar to lift his head in interest.

"Have they arrived yet?" Scar asked, turning to look at Cui who was busy staring at a computer monitor.

"Almost, just a few more minutes." The alien didn't take his eyes off of the monitor for even a moment.

"Alright," Scar said "We should head out soon, Goku. If they're spotted, there's no telling when they'll fire their weapon at Earth." Goku nodded in agreement.

"Right, hopefully it won't come to that, but if it does we need to be ready." The two men looked up at Bulma, noticing that she had a rather concerned look on her face. "What is it Bulma?" Goku asked, concerned for his oldest friend.

"I just… I'm worried about everyone." The woman sighed and looked over to Cui for a moment "I know that we have this all planned out but… I have this horrible feeling that-"

"Don't worry about it Bulma, we've all got this under control." Scar stated, despite having a gut wrenching feeling about the situation himself. He just hoped that his false confidence would cheer the blue haired woman up a bit.

His words, however, didn't assuage her feelings that much. Goku and Scar didn't have time to stand around and reassure her, however, and they both knew that she could handle herself in any case. The two of them grabbed their headsets and went out the door, hoping that Cui and Bulma would be able to handle the coordination of the teams at Capsule Corp.

* * *

'_You're all getting close to your ships, so I need you to put on your space suits._' Cui said to all of the groups as he monitored them from his computer '_after that, we're going to have the ships attach themselves to the hull, near each of the ships airlocks. From there, you will need to break into the ships first airlock chamber, but you have to be quiet about it. Got it? Any unnecessary noises might cause someone to notice.'_

'_We get it; now get on with the explanation.' _Guldo's impatient voice sounded throughout all of the headsets.

'_Once you're in the room, there will be another door that you can go through. Once you're in the hallway, close the door and after a few moments the room should depressurize and allow you to take off your suits. From there, the next room will almost always be lightly guarded, so keep that in mind. After that, each one of your ships looks like it has a different design, so all I can do is give you general instructions on how to reach the bridge. Your scouters will tell you which way to go for the most part, so just be very careful.'_

By now, everyone had gotten their suits on, and the first ship to arrive at their destination was Jeice and Yamcha's. Their ship latched onto the hull of the Cooler's gigantic ship, both men walked over to the door and looked at each other in anticipation.

"You ready?" Jeice asked his temporary comrade, who nodded and gave Jeice a thumbs up.

"About as ready as I'll ever be." Yamcha stated confidently, turning his head to watch as the door opened. Outside was a sea of darkness, with lights speckled about in the sky. Yamcha knew that they were stars now, but before he had met Bulma he had thought that they were just lights that had been put up really high in the sky, so high that you could only touch them with an airplane. He chuckled at how stupid that seemed to him now, but his face was still contorted in awe of the whole situation. Never in his life did he expect to be where he was now.

'From a bandit in the desert to the savior of Earth, eh?' He thought to himself, taking his first step out onto the hull of the ship. His boots magnetically attracted him down to the metal armor plating of the ship, allowing him to move freely on the surface. The same happened for Jeice as well, and almost immediately they spotted the door to where the airlock was. It was the only thing even remotely close to where they had landed, so they both figured the exact same thing.

Both of the men walked up to what they suspected was the airlock and stared at it for a moment. The metal door looked as if it opened from the middle, prompting Yamcha to come up with an idea.

"Think we can pry it open?" He asked the red skinned alien through their headsets, who nodded.

"Might as well give it a shot." The two of them knelt down and got as good of a grip on the door as they could, each one on the opposite side trying to pry the door apart from the middle. After a few moments, their brute force seemed to do the trick and the door began to forcibly open.

"G-great!" Yamcha grunted, trying to keep his grip on the now opened door. He managed to move his fingers down and grasp the width of the door, pulling it upwards in an attempt to bend it far enough so that they could jump through with little difficulty. Jeice picked up on Yamcha's plan and did the same, pulling up on his side of the door and bending it.

As they let go of their side of the door, the two parts quickly moved back into place, but now with an easy to get through hole that they had made just a few moments ago.

"After you." Jeice said, motioning for the human to jump into the ship. He nodded and crawled through, placing his feet firmly on what he through was the ground. It was dimly lit, and Yamcha could barely make out the door to the hallway that he had heard Cui speaking of before. He walked towards it and noticed a button to the side, but he refrained from pressing it until Jeice was next to him. Only a few moments later did the red skinned alien walk up and press the button for him, and sure enough the door slid open to reveal a hallway. Both of the fighters made their way into the hallway and watched as the door closed behind them.

'DEPRESSURIZING' a noticeably female voice stated, obviously mechanical, however. A few seconds later, the same voice boomed out 'DEPRESSURIZATION COMPLETE.'

Yamcha let out a sigh of relief as he took his helmet off, placing it on the ground as he shimmied out of the cumbersome suit he was wearing. Jeice had done the same, and both of them seemed relieved to finally be back in a normal atmosphere.

"Damn, I was burning up in there." Yamcha said, wiping the sweat off of his brow. He did a few stretches in preparation for what was ahead of them. "So how strong _are _these guys exactly?" He wondered aloud, prompting Jeice to chuckle a bit.

"Not enough to be a problem, I can tell you that." The alien cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders a bit "still, don't wanna let em' catch you off guard."

"You sound pretty confident." Yamcha stated, noting that his voice sounded rather confident as well. In truth, he was actually fairly certain that he could handle whatever lay ahead, but he knew he had to listen to Jeice's advice or he'd get himself in trouble.

"I was the 2nd in command of the Ginyu Force, the most elite soldiers for hire in the Cold empire!" Jeice stated, turning to look at Yamcha "these chumps ain't nothin' to me but a paycheck."

* * *

_**A few moments later, on the main ship…**_

Vegeta was the first to shed the ridiculous looking space suit, nearly vomiting from having to wear the damned thing. Soon after he had taken it off, Tien and Fiore both removed theirs as well, looking at the Saiyan with a rather judgmental gaze.

"Keep staring at me like that, I dare you." Vegeta warned them both, crossing his arms in protest of their staring.

"What was that you just pulled back there?" Tien asked, pointing to the door that led to the airlock "you could have gotten us all killed!"

"Don't give me that, if any alarms were going to go off, then they would have regardless of how we opened those doors." The Saiyan reasoned, shaking his head "we need to do this quickly, and that was the fastest way onto the ship."

"You _punched through the door_." Fiore stated, rubbing her forehead in frustration "that's the _worst _way we could have opened that door."

"I didn't see you coming up with any great plans." Vegeta said, beginning to walk towards the door "now how about we get started, we've wasted enough time already."

Tien reluctantly nodded and followed behind Vegeta, leaving Fiore behind for a moment.

"That's because you never asked if I _had _an idea…" She said to herself with a disappointed look.

* * *

_**Back on Earth…**_

Both Goku and Scar landed at the coordinates given to them by Bulma. Above they saw no indication of a ship, but they both suspected that it was hidden from view by the atmosphere above them. They were now ready to counterattack if one of the groups failed and alerted the others to their plan, but neither of them knew if they would truly be powerful enough to repel a blast from a star ship as large as the ones that were orbiting Earth.

Goku, still looking up at the sky, shook his head and sighed. "How did it come to this."

Scar took in a view of the cloudless sky above for a moment, but then turned his attention to the Saiyan next to him. "What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"Standing here, waiting for a laser to come out of the sky and destroy the Earth." Goku said, crossing his arms "things got really urgent, really quick. Remember when our biggest problem was winning the Worlds Martial Arts tournament?" Scar nodded, allowing Goku to continue "then it was King Piccolo. Everyone thought he was going to conquer Earth, but he was nothing compared to Raditz."

"Hmm…" Scar nodded in agreement once more, thinking back to the simpler days, where things weren't nearly as hectic. "I don't know how things got so complicated, but I'm glad that we were able to be properly trained before everything went to shit."

"No kidding." Goku agreed, taking his eye off of the sky and looking down to the ground "if I had known…"

"Stop, Goku." Scar ordered, knowing exactly what he was thinking "don't dwell on that right now, we need to focus."

"Right." Goku said, snapping out of his sorry state. "Let's hope that they don't get caught, otherwise we're going to have to go all out. Even then, I don't know if we can handle it."

* * *

_**Minutes later on one of the ships…**_

"… so then I told him to back off, but he just stands there like an idiot!" A green skinned soldier was heard by Jeice and Yamcha, who currently had their backs pressed against the wall to a hallway into a rather small room with a few computers in it.

"Aww, you've got to be kidding me!" The other alien said, this one was orange and had a furry body with long fangs "this is just too much!" The soldier laughed out loud, leaning back in his chair as he bellowed out. The green alien began to laugh as well, but stopped for a moment to check out his computer monitor.

Yamcha looked over at Jeice and lifted his finger up to his lips to signal for him to be silent, and then he motioned his finger down, to tell Jeice to stay where he was. The red skinned alien nodded and watched as Yamcha snuck into the room silently, hiding behind one of the desks that wasn't in use at the time. The two aliens were facing away from the entrance to the hallway, so it wasn't difficult to navigate around the room as long as there was no noise being made.

"You know what the best part is? Commander Glaive was there the whole time!" the green alien said after having finished his inspection of the computer screen "he wasn't happy at all."

"He's a tough bastard, last guy who disobeyed his orders got locked in the brig for a week." Jeice looked over at Yamcha, who had a fiendish grin on his face.

(Watch this.) Yamcha mouthed over to Jeice, who observed with great intrigue. The former bandit placed his left hand around his right arm, turning his right hand upright as energy coalesced above it. It made slight cackling noises, but Yamcha was doing his best to keep them to a minimum.

"Yeah, I remember that guy, he… Hey, do you hear that?" The green alien said, looking around the room, causing Jeice to move back a few feet to avoid detection.

"Yeah, sounds like one of the machines malfunctioned again." The feline alien stated, banging his computer lightly.

"No, it's not that, it's-" just then, a bright yellow ball floated up into the air, alarming the two soldiers. They didn't have time to react, however, because as soon as they had seen it, it was sent hurtling at the green alien, knocking him over his desk and crashing into his computer. The orange, furred alien was about to scream out for help when the ball suddenly switched course, ramming into his mouth and lodging itself in his throat. As the alien struggled to breath, Yamcha leapt from cover and grabbed the green alien by the throat, ensuring that he wouldn't be able to call for help. With a swift chop to the neck, the alien passed out, leaving only the feline alien left.

"Poor guy, I'm sorry it had to be this way." Yamcha said, lifting his index and middle finger slightly up into the air, and then directly down, shoving the ball of energy into the aliens intestines, killing him in a matter of seconds.

"Holy shit!" Jeice exclaimed, coming out of the hallway to see the two soldiers lying motionless. "You're gonna have to teach that to me when we get back." He stated, though his smile dissipated when he remembered what Vegeta had asked him to do the night before.

"Maybe I will." Yamcha's smile had more than a hint of smugness as he turned to look at the green alien lying on his desk, unconscious. "What should we do with this guy?"

"Kill him, don't want him waking up and alarmin' the whole ship." Jeice said, walking forward towards the door ahead.

"But this guy might have a family; I can't just kill him like that." Yamcha reasoned, looking back to Jeice as he turned around.

"Fine, then let me do it." He insisted, walking back towards the body. Yamcha stepped forward, blocking Jeice from the green alien.

"I don't think so." Yamcha said, crossing his arms. "If Goku were here, he'd find a way to do this without killing anyone unnecessarily."

"Looks like you've already gone and broke that rule; haven't you?" The red alien said, looking over at the body of the orange furred alien.

"I only did that because my spirit ball accidentally flew into his throat." Yamcha growled, "I didn't exactly have time to aim that well."

"You keep telling yourself that. But lemme ask you something… we aren't Goku, are we?" Jeice asked rhetorically. Yamcha looked confused for a moment, but shook his head and stood his ground "I don't have to remind you of what's at stake here, do I? Your entire planet rests on this mission. We can't take chances."

The former bandit stared at Jeice for a moment in defiance, but after thinking it over he sighed and moved to the side. He merely watched as Jeice placed his hand on the soldier's throat, gathering energy to his palm which began to incinerate his neck. Yamcha looked away before he could see any more, but he did hear a thump on the floor that sent chills up his spine.

"Let's move, we've got a lot of ground to cover." Jeice stated, walking past Yamcha and through the door to the next hallway.

Yamcha walked forward a few steps before turning to look at the two dead aliens. He placed his hand on his forehead and sighed, hoping that Goku and his friends would understand the situation that they were in. 'Jeice is right, too much rests on this mission' Yamcha told himself, heading back to the door that Jeice had just gone through 'don't worry Bulma, I won't let anything happen to you.'

* * *

_**Meanwhile, on an adjacent ship…**_

Guldo looked around the room briefly, and then turned to look at his three squad mates.

"How's it looking?" Krillin asked, wondering how many people they would have to deal with in the next room. From where he was, he could hear some idle chatter, so he figured it would only be a few.

"Uh… Well, I've seen worse." Guldo stated, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh great, just what I wanted to hear." The bald man shook his head in mild frustration and looked back at Guldo "think you can use those time stopping powers on all of them?"

The green alien cocked his head in thought for a moment, then shook his head "not all, but I can get the ones closest to us."

"Well that won't do any good if the ones in the back see and raise an alarm!" Krillin quietly shouted at the mercenary, who looked back into the room to see if anyone had heard their conversation.

"Calm down Krillin, they'll hear us!" Chiaotzu claimed, floating down to the ground. "I can try some of my new techniques. Maybe if I sneak past the guards, I can distract them long enough so they won't notice that the others are completely frozen?"

"Can you really get past them all without them noticing you?" Guldo asked, taking yet another cautionary look back into the room "there are a lot of them in there, you know."

Chiaotzu nodded and walked closer to the edge of the doorway where Guldo was standing. "I've been practicing a technique that allows me to manipulate people's minds into thinking that I'm not there!"

"Wow, Chiaotzu, that's actually pretty cool." Krillin commented, wondering how the small warrior was able to come up with such advanced techniques "but have you practiced it yet?"

"Well, yes, but I don't know if it'll work on warriors as strong as the ones on this ship…" The white skinned psychic chuckled briefly in concern.

"Is it really worth the risk?" Krillin wondered aloud, looking over to Guldo.

"It's not the safest bet, but it's the quickest." Guldo stated, looking down at Chiaotzu "you ready, kid?"

"Hey, I'm no kid!" Chiaotzu said, crossing his arms in defiance "but yes, I'm ready."

"Good luck Chiaotzu, don't do anything rash." Krillin advised, watching as the small warrior dashed forward and took cover behind a desk. Lod peeked out curiously along with Krillin and Guldo to see how Chiaotzu would fare.

Most of the people in the room were sitting down and relaxing, and only two were actively looking around. Chiaotzu decided to use this to his favor. Focusing on the two workers who were actually attentive, the small man was able to successfully enter their minds with the use of telepathy. Chiaotzu figured that these people must not have been very powerful if he was able to enter in so quickly, but he digressed, telling himself that he should never underestimate an opponent, no matter how strong he thought his own powers were. Taking advantage of his position, Chiaotzu raced past a few sleeping guards, stopping behind a desk to wait for a soldier to walk by him before continuing down the path.

When the time came to walk past the two attentive guards, Chiaotzu let out a silent sigh, hoping desperately that his plan would work. As quickly as he could, the small warrior dashed past the two of them and behind yet another desk, stopping only to slow his incredibly fast heart rate.

'I sure hope they didn't-'

"Hey! You! I saw that!" One of the guards shouted, widening Chiaotzu's eyes immensely.

"Oh shit, it's over, we screwed up!" Krillin whispered to the other two next to him "sorry Goku, Scar, Bulma, Master Roshi…"

"What did I tell you about using your communicator on the job!?" The soldier questioned, walking right past Chiaotzu to one the workers sitting at their desks.

All four of the infiltrators let out a collective sigh of relief.

"I uh… maybe got a little carried away there." Krillin, obviously embarrassed, admitted.

"Think so?" Lod sarcastically remarked, uttering a chuckle out of Guldo.

"You're alright for a Saibamen." Guldo mentioned, looking back to see how Chiaotzu was doing.

To everyone's great surprise, Chiaotzu had disappeared from sight completely. He was quick in getting past the rest of the guards, as most of them didn't exactly seem that interested in keeping a watch out.

'These people must have really boring jobs.' Chiaotzu thought to himself as he rounded a corner into an empty hallway. 'Now I've just gotta distract them so that everyone can get through the room…'

* * *

_**Main ship, moments ago…**_

"What are we waiting for; it's only a single soldier." Vegeta stated, ready to pounce out from their hiding spot and kill the unsuspecting guard.

So far, they had already cleared out a few rooms filled with soldiers merely by Tien's incredible speed enhancing Kaio-Ken technique. While it was true that he could do the same here, he wanted to give Fiore something to do so that she wasn't completely un-utilized in the mission.

"I can do this, he doesn't have to die you know." Fiore stated before Tien could even advocate for her to be the one to do it. "I was a commanding officer on Frieza's ship; I know how to talk to common guards like this."

"You aren't even wearing one of these men's uniforms, how can you hope to fool him wearing one of Frieza's trademark uniforms?" Vegeta asked, making her think very seriously about her next few words.

"I'll be right back!" She stated, running back to the rooms that they had already cleaned out.

"Are we really going to wait for her?" The Saiyan wondered impatiently, looking back over at the attentive guard. "We don't exactly have all day."

"We've already made some good ground. According to Cui, we're already further ahead than the other two groups."

"Well isn't that fantastic, so you're solution is to slow us down with these idiotic plans?"

"Let her have a chance, Vegeta. When this is all over, I'll fight you if you're so eager to test your skills."

After a brief moment of pause, Vegeta smirked in an almost sadistic fashion "I'd only fight you if there were no limitations. My Oozaru form against your Kaio-Ken technique."

"Forget it," Tien said almost instantly "we'd do way too much damage to the Earth."

The Saiyan warrior chuckled "who says it has to be on Earth."

Tien was perplexed by Vegeta's words, but was snapped out of it by Fiore, who walked up to the two fighters wearing one of the uniforms of Cooler's men that fit her surprisingly well.

"Stay here, when I get him to turn around, I want both of you to sneak past him as quickly as possible, got it?" Tien nodded, but Vegeta thought the entire plan was stupid.

"We could have been past him already, why not just kill him and be done with it?"

"He's alone, and poses no threat if we walk past him. Not everyone needs to die." Fiore stated, with Tien whole heartedly agreeing.

"I might have been with you earlier in my life, Vegeta, but I've changed. Taking life when it isn't necessary isn't something that I can tolerate, and if you plan on keeping up with your attitude, I suggest you go back to the ship and wait for us to finish our job here."

Vegeta coldly stared at Tien, who returned his gaze with no fear in his eyes.

"Fine, but if this backfires, you'll know who to blame." The Saiyan said, taking a quick, intimidating glance at Fiore.

She gulped and nodded, walking out into the open, alerting the guard to her presence. To Tien's relief, the guard didn't seem to find anything wrong with Fiore at all.

"Must be a lot of soldiers coming through the ship." Tien said quietly, noting that the guard didn't even flinch when Fiore walked up in front of him.

"Attention, soldier!" She shouted, perking the green, alligator looking alien to attention.

"Y-yes ma'am!" He shouted back, lifting his hand to his forehead.

"What kind of pathetic stance is that?!" She said, looking down at his knees "your body is shaking, have some confidence man!"

"I-I'm sorry ma'am!" He apologized, knees still quaking in fear. It was obvious he hadn't been on the job for long "wait… w-who are you?" He asked, voice tainted with nervousness.

"I am your commanding officer, that's all you need to know! Now if you don't want to get demoted to cleaning the floors of the bathrooms with a toothbrush, I suggest you get down on the ground and give me 50!"

"Yes ma'am!" He shouted, dropping to the ground and immediately beginning his punishment. At the same time, Vegeta and Tien dashed out from their hiding place and into the next hallway, never once alerting the busy guard to their presence.

"Good, good, now get up you pathetic excuse for a soldier." Fiore shouted, having much more fun with this than she had originally intended.

"Yes ma'am! Whatever you say ma'am!" He shouted back, rising to his feet after only 12 push-ups.

"I have somewhere to be, don't forget what we talked about today!"

"Yes ma'am! I'll remember these valuable lessons ma'am!" He nervously stated, raising his hand to his forehead for another salute "all hail Emperor Cooler!"

"Hail Lord Frieza!" She shouted back, immediately realizing how big of a mistake she had just made. The guards eyes widened in shock. "Shit…" She muttered, quickly throwing a powerful chop at the guard's neck, knocking him out. "That could have gone a little better…" Fiore thought aloud, wondering what she should do with the knocked out soldier.

* * *

_**Back with Chiaotzu…**_

The small fighter concentrated his thoughts on a small object in the back of the room. It was a chair that no one was occupying at the moment, and he hoped that he would be able to distract the guards with it long enough to allow Guldo and the others to deal with the rest of the guards in the room.

Using his telekinesis, he guided the chair slowly across the room, catching the eye of quite a few guards who were looking in that direction.

"What the hell is going on?!" One of them yelled as the chair made a figure eight around two desks.

"Is the artificial gravity malfunctioning?" One of the other soldiers theorized while the chain made wildly irregular patterns around the room. Suddenly, the chair flew out of the room and into the next hallway where Chiaotzu happened to be at the time. The hallway forked in three different directions, so Chiaotzu hid behind a small outcropping in a wall to the left while he controlled the chair to move down the right corridor of the hallway. As he had hoped, many of the soldiers rose up from their seats and followed the chair out into the hallway, intent on finding out why exactly this chair was moving around so strangely.

Once a good amount of the guards had left the area, the remaining soldiers looked around at each other with quizzical glances, wondering what they should do. However, their thoughts were cut off when they realized that they literally couldn't move their bodies at all.

"Now!" Krillin shouted "get the one's on the left; I'll handle the ones on the right!"

"Yes!" Lod acknowledged, jumping out from cover and dashing forward. Both of them went for non-lethal strikes, hoping to knock a majority of the men out.

"Ha!" Krillin exclaimed, sending a powerful punch to the last of the guard's stomachs. Guldo took a nice, long gasp of air as the two fighters readied themselves for anyone who happened to still be conscious. However, as the men regained control of their movement, every single one of them fell to the floor.

"Wow, didn't think you guys had it in you." Guldo stated, wiping his forehead "good thing you guys work fast, I can't hold my breath for too long."

"Well they're all just knocked out; we'll have to find a way to keep them from contacting their leader when they wake up." Krillin said, looking around at all of the guards on the floor.

"How about we kill them and be done with it?" Guldo suggested, which would normally have sickened Krillin to the core. Given his current situation, however, he was almost inclined to agree with the mercenary.

"No, not this time." Lod spoke up; alarming both Guldo and Krillin "no one dies, not while Lod is here."

'He must still be shook up about the death of that other Saibamen' Krillin thought, remembering when they had tried to revive him with a senzu bean, only to realize that they were too late to do anything at all.

"He's right, let's just take their communicators and lock them in this room." Krillin agreed, nodding his head at the Saibamen to his left.

Guldo groaned in acknowledgment, but before they could enact their plan, Chiaotzu rushed into the room.

"They're coming back!" He shouted at the three fighters "hide! Before they see you all!"

Guldo and Krillin dashed behind one of the desks, while Lod and Chiaotzu flew up into the sky and tried to hide on the ceiling. As some of the soldiers came in, they noticed immediately that something was amiss.

"What the hell happened here?!" A blue skinned alien shouted out, rushing over to one of the downed guards. "Get in here everyone, quick!"

Sure enough, many of the soldiers flooded the room and quickly checked to see if the unconscious guards were still alive. After only a few seconds of checking, one of the soldiers finally wised up.

"Someone sound the alarm, I think we have some intruders!"

"On it!" One of the more human looking guards acknowledged as he began to lift up his communicator. Just before he was able to press any button at all, his hand stopped moving completely. In fact, his entire body had stopped moving, and everyone else had as well!

"Looks like it's time for round two!" Krillin said, jumping from his cover to attack the remaining guards.

* * *

_**A few hours later, back on Earth…**_

Bulma walked back into the room after a brief lunch break. As usual, Cui was talking to one of the teams and attempting to coordinate some kind of sneak attack for an upcoming room that they were about to enter. So far, they had been very successful in remaining undetected, and Bulma hoped that it would stay that way.

"Yes, there's a shortcut around the room if you go through the vents." Cui stated to one of the groups on the ship, turning to greet Bulma as she walked through the door. "Ready to get back to work?" He asked, turning back to look at his computer monitor.

"Yeah, nothing changed, did it?" She wondered, sitting back down at her desk.

"Nothing huge, but I did detect something strange about the main ship." Cui answered, tapping away at his keyboard.

"How bad is it?" Bulma questioned. She had her computer run a scan on the main ship in a matter of seconds after she had heard Cui's words.

"I don't know, but it might have to do with that virus program we had sent to all three ships in order to loop camera footage to the security rooms."

"Did they figure it out already?"

"I highly doubt it, that virus was one of the finest I'd ever seen made. It'd take Cooler's best hacker to figure out that there was even a virus in the first place." Bulma heaved a sigh of relief and took a sip of her drink, looking over the scan of the main ship once more. "It's only strange because it looks like the cameras have stopped moving at all. It's almost as if they've stopped recording, but I can clearly see that they're still operational."

"Well isn't that strange…" Dr. Brief said in the background, grabbing both Bulma and Cui's attention.

"What is it dad?" The blue haired woman asked, turning around in her chair to face her father.

"According to this code of data I've found, it appears that our virus has, in fact, been found!"

"What?!" Both Cui and Bulma shouted in unison. Cui immediately leapt from his chair to see what Dr. Brief was talking about.

"He's right, but it's only the main ship…" Cui stated curiously, looking through the data codes once again "neither of the other ones has figured it out yet."

"That's what I found strange. It took me a while to find it, so I'm assuming they knew about the virus for at least a few minutes." Dr. Brief began to explain, taking a huff of his cigarette "but then, if they've known about it for this long, why haven't they contacted the other ships about it?"

Both Cui and Bulma looked at each other in bewilderment. Neither one of them had any clue what exactly was going on, but they'd do their best to figure it out.

* * *

_**Main ship, on the bridge just a few minutes ago…**_

"Admiral, we've found a rather interesting bug in our security systems" one of the scrawny, tan colored feline aliens said as he looked upon his computer screen. "The footage is looping, but I was able to capture something that you might be interested in seeing."

The alien turned around in his chair to face his commanding officer. A brutish looking Arcosian with long horns protruding out of the top of his head, his skin looked like a dark shade of orange. He easily stood nine feet tall, and his impressive physique was enough to intimidate the toughest of soldiers. He currently had his hand around his mouth and chin in deep thought, wondering exactly how this kind of intrusion of security might affect his standing with the Emperor Cooler. After a brief moment of recollecting his thoughts, the Arcosian looked down at his security expert and nodded.

"Show me this footage." His baritone voice boomed out, frightening his soldiers even though they had heard it many times before. The feline alien nodded and brought up a screen in front of the Admiral that showed three individuals running across a hallway. They were quick, but something about one of them intrigued the Arcosian greatly. "Rewind it, pause it when they're all in frame." He ordered. The security agent complied, and when the Admiral recognized who he was looking at, he bellowed out a booming laugh that sent chills down everyone's spine. "Why, if it isn't little Vegeta, all grown up."

"V-vegeta?" The security officer asked cautiously, looking up at his own monitor to see if he could recognize anyone on screen.

"Of course, the so called 'Prince of the Saiyans'" The Arcosian mocked, crossing his arms and laughing once more. "I didn't think he had it in him to work with such a weak species."

"I'll go ahead and warn the other two ships of this virus, Admiral." The feline alien said as he begun to tap on his keyboard.

"Wait." The Arcosian demanded, leaning back in his chair with a sickening grin. "Let them have their fun. I want to face these creatures myself."

"B-but Admiral Haabu, Emperor Cooler-"

"Do not speak to me of that pompous fool." The Admiral said, leering down at his underling "no one is to find out about this little security breach, do you understand me?"

"I… I understand…" the security officer turned around and sighed, hoping that his commanding officers confidence wouldn't get them all killed.

'If Cooler finds out about this, I'll be the laughingstock of the entire army.' Haabu thought to himself, looking directly at the image of Vegeta that was frozen onscreen. 'Better to deal with this myself. Let's see if you have what it takes to defeat _me, _Vegeta.' He began to chuckle once again at the prospect of destroying these three pathetic insects. The Admiral hadn't had a good fight since his 'incident', but he knew now that he was finally ready to use his magnificent powers to quell this uprising. 'And perhaps if I'm lucky, destroy this pathetic planet of Earth as well!'

* * *

**How powerful is this new Arcosian Admiral? Will the three groups be able to take over their respective ships? And if they fail, will Goku and Scar be able to hold off the Earth shattering beam? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**A/N: This new Arcosian's name is Haabu, and in case you were wondering it is derived from the word ****Haboob****: **_**A thunderstorm-powered rolling wave of dust & sand**_**. **

**I chose this name with the help of Roketto, A.K.A. Rocket, A.K.A. Ryu no Ohi, who is quite the expert on Arcosians. She has created many different original Arcosian characters with names based off of different tribes of Arcosians. The Cold tribe (King Cold, Cooler, Frieza) has names that are synonymous with being cold, and other tribes have different name puns based on their 'element' such as Kaji, which means fire in Japanese. Haabu is from an earth element tribe, but is mixed with different personality traits that you will be able to discern in the next chapter, so hopefully you will be able to see why I chose such a name for the character.**

* * *

**Roketto has also started a brand new fan fiction entitle "**_**Savior of Demons**_" **which takes place right after Frieza lands on Earth with King Cold.**

**Summary:** **The overall theme of SoD is, "becoming more than what fate shaped you to be". Frieza's fate takes a different path as he tries to come to terms with being spared by his hated enemy.**

**Only on its first chapter, it already has a lot of fantastic reviews. It's very well written, and I just so happen to be the main editor, so I highly suggest you check it out!**

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**


	45. Chapter 40: Admiral

**Chapter 40: Admiral**

The air in the room was heavy, almost unbearably so as Yamcha and Jeice stood in front of the last obstacle standing in their way of taking control of the ship. It had taken quite some time, since they and the others had been told that the main ship had somehow found out that a virus had corrupted their security footage, but they trusted Bulma and Cui's word that the other ships were in the dark about the other two groups. They looked at each other for a few moments, both fearful, but each for different reasons.

"Looks like we're at the end of the trail, or at least that's what Cui said." Yamcha sighed, looking back at the door that they stood in front of, cracking his neck in anticipation.

"Yeah, looks like." Jeice frowned, thinking over what exactly he would do after the fight was over. 'Vegeta's one shallow bastard, telling me to kill this guy just because he wants his girl.' Jeice thought, cracking his knuckles through his white gloves, readying himself for yet another fight. 'Fuck it, I've decided on what I plan to do. It's time to finish this.'

Jeice nodded his head and smirked, walking up to the door with Yamcha. "Ready, mate?"

Yamcha looked back over and nodded, shaking away his doubts and focusing his ki, filling himself with confidence as Jeice slid a keycard he had taken from a dead officer through the lock mechanism. As the door slowly began to slide open, they heard voices from inside of the next room.

"Captain, someone's entering the bridge." One of the crew mentioned, causing a bit of a ruckus between the men.

"What? I haven't authorized entrance to anyone yet… Damn it, if that's you again, Balkin, I'll have you suspended for a week!" The captain declared, shooting back in surprise when the door had finally opened.

"Sorry, but I think your mate might have had some slight health complications." Jeice grinned, loving the confused expression on the captain's mug.

"Men, sound the alarm, tell the other ships that we have intruders!" The blue-skinned captain shouted at his crew members as they jumped into action. Before any of them could so much as press a single button, Yamcha's aura burst into crimson. He charged forward with blistering speed, such that not even Jeice could keep up with his movements. The former bandit flew past the first deck hand with a hard punch to the face, sending him flying across the room into another of the crew, smashing them into one of the various computers, destroying it and sending sparks flying as he kneed another in the gut. Before the crew member could even fall to the ground he had already grabbed the next person by the collar of their armor and smashed them into another one of their comrades, tossing them to the side as he elbowed the final one of the captain's men in the chest, causing him to crash into another one of the computers.

Yamcha sighed as his aura flickered out. He looked back up at the captain of the ship, who wore a face filled with both horror and amazement at what he had just seen; or rather what had just occurred, as he couldn't hope to keep up with the amazingly quick movements of the one who had taken down all of the crew on his bridge.

"Wh-what the hell just happened?" The captain shouted, backing away slowly as his cape ceased its rustling from the output of Yamcha's power. "Cooler never said anything about— Agh!" He yelled out as he backed into Jeice, quickly spinning around and taking a defensive combat stance. "I won't be taken down like all of those other weaklings, I am a captain of the Cold Empire, and I am not to be taken light—"

Before he could finish his bold statement, Jeice quickly shot forward to plant his fist directly into the captain's stomach. The blue skinned alien lurched forward, coughing out in sheer agony as Jeice smirked and retracted his fist, watching the pathetic being back away, cowering at his might.

"Excuse me, it seems that I've gotten even stronger than I thought." The former Ginyu Force member boasted, readying himself for a finishing blow.

"No, that's enough!" Yamcha shouted, rushing towards the two and putting himself between Jeice and the captain, who fell to his knees and vomited on the ground, groaning in agony. "He's had enough; we might need him later for information." The two locked eyes for a moment, but Jeice grinned and waved it off.

"Right, right, got a little carried away." He admitted to his teammate, looking out the massive window into the blackness of space. He almost wished he could see the other ships, but it appeared that the bridge was facing away from them at the time. "Time to call Cui, then, tell him that we've got this ship on lockdown."

The human nodded, raising his hand to the communicator on his head. "Cui? Bulma? Come in, this is Yamcha." He said, turning around and looking down at the defeated captain. It appeared that he had passed out on the ground, but he kneeled down to check his pulse just in case. He knelt down in front of him and raised his arm, feeling his wrist as static began to come through the communicator. 'Whew, he's still alive…' Yamcha sighed, listening closely as he raised himself from the ground. "Guys, can you hear me?" He asked again, scratching the top of his head as he continued to try and reach them.

Behind him, Jeice sighed and shook his head 'turning your back on me, eh? Not a very smart idea.' He thought to himself, clenching his fists tightly.

* * *

"Yamcha, can you read me?" Cui said for the third time, trying to get a response from the human after he had attempted to communicate with Bulma and himself. "What is your situation?" He asked, smirking a bit as the static cleared up.

'_Hey, finally, thought this thing might have been broken!' _Yamcha said through the communicator. '_We just took down the captain, pretty easily too, I was afraid he might actually be a challenge.'_ Cui laughed and shook his head, turning to look at both Bulma and Dr. Brief.

"Looks like Jeice and Yamcha managed to take control of the ship." he explained to the others, bringing a smile to the blue haired woman's face.

"Great, one down and just two more to go!" She said optimistically, noting to herself that even though they had discovered their virus, the main ship of the Armada had still not acted on it, and Tien had even explained that no alarm was going off in the ship at all. "Maybe we were wrong about them finding our virus?" She thought aloud. Dr. Brief merely sighed in silence and tapped away on his keyboard as Scratch, his black cat, yawned and rested on his shoulder.

'_How are the others doing?' _Yamcha asked, snapping Cui back to attention.

"They haven't been caught yet; Krillin and his team are about to reach the bridge, while Tien, Vegeta, and Fiore are still a ways away." The purple alien looked back at his computer, bringing up a page of the main ship with a red dot that showed where the team currently was. "With any luck, they'll be reaching the bridge in about an hour."

'_Ha, I knew we'd be the first ones done.' _The former bandit chuckled. Cui rolled his eyes and shook his head. '_We'll keep this place on lockdown. Oh, and tell Tien and Krillin that I'm number one.' _

Cui laughed a bit and shook his head once more, his fleshy barbels waving with the movement. "Sure, whatever you say, hotshot. Tell me if something goes wrong. Cui out."

* * *

As the transmission cut off, Yamcha grinned and looked out the window, wondering if maybe, just maybe, they'd all get out of this alive. He hadn't really had much hope for the success of the mission, but it seemed as if everyone had played their parts exceptionally well, even Jeice and his lackeys. Still, something seemed off about the whole thing… It wasn't just the fact that no alarms went off when the virus was found out, but something more. In the past he had trusted his gut instincts, but that had gotten him in trouble on more than one occasion, so for now he decided to just let it go and enjoy his small victory.

"So, Jeice, what do you plan on doing when we get back to Earth?" He asked, still looking out the window, admiring the constellations. "Jeice?" He asked after a few moments of silence, turning around to find that he was nowhere in sight. "Jeice, where the hell did you go?" Yamcha shouted, looking around the room to no avail. "Shit, where is he?" The human asked himself, taking another quick look around the room. "Seriously, Jeice, I need you to disable the alarm systems!" He yelled out, looking over towards the entrance to the room where he heard footsteps.

"Calm down, I was just takin' a leak." Jeice explained tersely. Yamcha breathed a sigh of relief, looking back over to the main console.

"We should shut down whatever doesn't need to be kept on in order to keep this thing running." Yamcha said, Jeice walking up next to him.

"Leave it to me, I'll deal with this." He assured, pressing a few keys as Yamcha looked on. Jeice shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment, then continued to work on shutting down the alarm systems. 'Vegeta can do his own damn dirty work.' Jeice told himself, looking over at the now silent human. "We made a pretty good team, eh?" He asked sincerely, patting him on the back and getting back to work. Yamcha let out a smile, and much to his surprise, he agreed.

"Yeah, maybe you guys aren't as bad as I thought." Yamcha admitted to his teammate, glad that he had someone new to call an ally.

* * *

**On the main ship…**

Things were far too quiet for Tien and Vegeta's liking.

Ever since Bulma and Cui had told them about the virus being discovered, they had only run across a few crewmen of the ship, tipping them off that perhaps there was some kind of trap waiting for them ahead. Fiore brushed it off as good luck at first, but as they made their way through the ship, she discovered more and more that perhaps there was some truth to what Tien and Vegeta told her.

"Keep your guard up, they could strike at any moment, especially if they can see their security footage now." Tien warned, keeping his fists clenched as they quickly moved about the ship.

"What do you think I'm doing, human?" Vegeta said in aggravation, keeping an eye behind them at all times to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Just keep moving, we're nearly to the bridge." Fiore looked around cautiously, growing more and more wary of their situation.

As the three of them rushed ahead, they noticed an opening that lead to an even larger room. According to their scouters, it branched off into three other hallways, one leading almost directly to the bridge. They had already thought to take a different route, but it seemed that it was only through this one hallway that they could get to where they needed to be. As they reached the end of the hallway, the three of them rushed up against the right wall, looking into the octagonal room to make sure that no one was around.

"I could almost swear we're running into some kind of trap…" Tien worriedly said as he observed the next room, "there's no way that a ship this huge can run off such a small crew."

Vegeta smirked and laughed under his breath. "Then let's see if they truly have what it takes to compete with the prince of the Saiyans." His teammates didn't share his optimism, especially Fiore, who became increasingly frightened at the situation. If Jeice was telling her, Cui and Guldo the truth about this Arcosian Admiral, then she wasn't sure she could handle him, even with the help of such powerful warriors as Tien and Vegeta. While she worked under Frieza, she had heard some of the atrocities that the tyrant had committed, murdering his own soldiers for mere trivialities. She was absolutely terrified of Frieza, even before she was assigned to work directly under his command. On Namek, she herself had nearly been killed, when she relayed information back to Frieza on the supposed death of Dodoria.

"Vegeta, you of all people should know not to underestimate an Arcosian." Fiore absconded, voice as quiet as she could make it. Vegeta ignored her words and walked forward with Tien, who deemed the room to be safe.

"This hallway should lead us to the bridge." Tien explained briefly, pointing ahead. As Fiore stepped out of the hallway, a metal door crashed shut behind them.

"Holy shit!" Fiore shouted, turning around and backing away in surprise.

"No, no! I knew this was going to happen!" Tien shouted as the open doors to the other two hallways flew down, creating a loud 'thump' as they reached the steel ground. Only the hallway to the bridge was left open, but from that hall they could hear some rather loud footsteps. They were slow, meticulous, almost as if whoever was approaching was trying to scare them out of their wits.

Vegeta laughed out, nearly drowning the sound of the footsteps completely. "I've been waiting for this, come out and show yourself so I can finally fulfill this urge!" The Saiyan shouted, his lust for battle having gone unheeded for a good while.

The three of them stared at the silhouette approaching them, each of them getting into a fighting pose as it came closer and closer to them.

"H-he's huge…" Tien said to himself, noting that he appeared to be about the same height as King Cold was when he had arrived on Earth.

"He really _is _an Arcosian… what if he's as powerful as Frieza?!" Fiore looked on in slight panic, lifting her hand up to her chest where she could feel her heart beat faster.

Tien took his eyes off of the massive being for a moment and stared worriedly at the frightened woman. "Not now, Fiore. This isn't the time to panic!" He exclaimed, quickly turning his head towards the quickly advancing opponent.

"He… I'm not strong enough…" She nearly whispered to herself, eyes wide open, staring at the menacing Arcosian before them. It was as if she was back on Frieza's ship on Namek, fearing for her life every single day.

With every booming step, her heart pounded faster. The closer he came, the more she could feel her feet slipping backwards. Finally, as his obscured face came into the light, her mind raced with memories that she would rather have kept away, chest heaving in panic.

* * *

"_L-lord Frieza…" Fiore called out sheepishly, gripping the straw that she had pulled from one of her crewmates hands a mere minute earlier. Although a few others were at her side, they did nothing to assuage the feelings of fear inside of her 'Damn… Of all the days to have bad luck…' She stalled for a few more moments, gathering up the courage to speak to her sadistic employer._

"_What is it; you know I'm on a busy schedule, so out with it." The tyrant stated whilst looking out of the ship's window, showing the peaceful ecosystem of the planet Namek._

"_Ah, I'm sorry to inform you, Lord Frieza, that Dodoria has…perished…" She said as calmly as she could. She stepped back a moment in fear, knowing that Frieza had killed employees in the past for much less than she was currently doing._

_A few quiet moments passed - Fiore could tell that Frieza was shaking his head in disappointment, but she couldn't so much as utter a single word without them catching in her throat._

_Finally, she couldn't bear being in his presence any longer, and began to back away slowly, with the other two crewmates following suit._

"_Oh, have I given you permission to leave?" Frieza asked in what appeared to be a rather agitated, albeit collected manner._

"_N-no, my lord…" Fiore cringed as she watched Frieza turn to face her, a menacing stare piercing her eyes. As he lifted his finger toward her, Fiore attempted to scream, but found that no sound would release from her throat as he fired a death beam straight into her heart._

_Her eyes shot wide open as she fell back, her arms reaching forward in a desperate attempt to grab anything to stop her fall. Both of her co-workers merely backed away, allowing her to fall to the ground, her head bouncing off of the cold, hard floor with a slight 'thump.'_

_Frieza's scowl burned into her mind as she lay on the floor, gasping for air…_

* * *

"Shit… No, no, I can't do this…" She said out loud, causing both Tien and Vegeta to look at her in confusion. "I don't want to die like that again…please, I need to go back, I…his face, it's like his!" She backed away into the closed door, eyes darting around the room wildly like a trapped animal as she tried to come up with some kind of escape plan.

"Fiore!" Tien shouted, trying to keep his attention on both her and the Arcosian headed their way. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, don't be afraid!"

She began to breathe harder as the panic set in. "I'm so fucked… I'm in way over my head…what the hell am I even doing here?!" She screamed out, falling to her knees and grasping her forehead as the room began to fill with a deep, menacing laughter.

The Arcosian took his final few steps into the room, staring intently at the woman on the ground.

"I knew at least one of you would buckle under the pressure, but a complete breakdown? I do believe I have outdone myself." The brown-toned Arcosian grinned slyly, taking his eyes off of Fiore to exchange glances with the other two fighters in the room, both of whom weren't nearly as tall as he was. "So this is what Earth has to offer? A pathetic human and a monkey who believes he has some right to be called a prince." His stare fixated on Vegeta, who looked at the Admiral as if he had never seen him before.

"How the hell do you know who I am?!" Vegeta shouted, voice filled with both confusion and anger at the same time.

"Ah, I know much more about you than you might think. I knew your father, after all." Vegeta's eyes widened in disbelief as the Arcosian spoke. "Yes, I even knew you when you were but a child, though you never met me. Still the same arrogant, prideful fool you always were." He explained as he began to walk towards Vegeta. The prince quickly resumed his fighting pose, which stopped the Arcosian in his tracks.

"Now Vegeta, don't tell me you truly think you're powerful enough to face someone as strong as Emperor Cooler himself, do you?" The Arcosian smugly grinned at Vegeta, whose confusion merely turned to anger as his foe continued to speak. "Don't tell me you've never heard of the mighty Admiral Haabu?"

Vegeta looked away for a moment in thought, but his expression quickly morphed back into a menacing scowl. Indeed he had heard of someone by the name of Haabu…Frieza spoke of him a few times, although nothing of any major importance. Still, he wouldn't give his adversary the pleasure of notability.

"Can't say that I have, sorry." Vegeta smirked, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment as he watched the smile of the Arcosian disappear.

"Be that as it may, you stand no chance." Haabu stated confidently, turning to look at the other two people in the room. "Although, if you wish to test your mettle, I have a certain proposition you may be interested in."

Tien looked up at the Arcosian curiously, still holding his fighting stance. "Yeah, and what would that be?" The three-eyed human asked, looking briefly over at Vegeta to make sure he wouldn't strike unexpectedly.

"Forget it, Frieza never kept his word, why should I expect you to?" Vegeta shouted out, cutting Haabu off before he could explain.

The brown-hued Haabu chuckled to himself and crossed his arms, turning back to Vegeta. "Perhaps you would like to hear the proposition before foolishly declining it."

Vegeta scowled at Haabu. "I think I'd rather just beat the life out of you!" The Saiyan nearly shouted, nearly attacking when Tien interrupted him.

"Vegeta! That's enough!" Tien yelled out, causing the prince to look over at him "the fate of our planet is at stake, attack him now and _I'll _be the one to put you down."

The Saiyan prince clenched his teeth and fists tightly in anger "No, the fate of _your _planet is at stake. _My _planet was destroyed by the likes of this cretin!"

Haabu's laugh broke the two's concentration. "Quite harsh, but I should tell you, I merely loaded the proverbial gun. Frieza took care of that wretched planet, I merely suggested that it needed to be done."

"Why you!" Vegeta stepped forward with an outstretched fist "I should eviscerate you right here, right now!"

"And what then, Vegeta?" Haabu asked, unfolding his arms and clenching his fists. "This ship would almost certainly be destroyed by our battle, and you'd die along with the planet you've taken up residence on."

Silence filled the next few moments as Vegeta took in the information, and he finally let out a resigned growl.

"Fine, what is it you propose?" The Saiyan asked roughly, crossing his arms and looking to the side.

Haabu unclenched his fists and smiled. "Glad to see you've come to see reason." he stated, turning around and walking forward, his cape fluttering behind him as he walked. "I am…tremendously bored." The Arcosian let out a sigh and shook his head, crossing his arms once more and turning around to face the three intruders. "You have given me something to do, other than guard this pathetic rock. Curse Cooler for giving me such a menial task…" His eyes darted off to the side, but quickly fixated back on his main target: Vegeta. "You wish to fight me, do you not, Vegeta?"

The Saiyan turned his head in interest, though he didn't say a word.

"Of course you do. After all, you never did have your revenge on Frieza, and I suppose I might just be the next best thing?" Haabu chuckled and shook his head, "of course, there's another side to this. I'm sick of this place, I'm sick of sitting here doing absolutely nothing, and now I have all the reason I need to destroy this planet and be done with it."

"What?! No! How can you so callously decide that you want to annihilate an entire planet?" Tien shouted out in concern.

Haabu turned his head to face the human and shook his head "This rock means nothing to me. Means nothing to the Planet Trade Organization, either, although Cooler seems to think he can control a being vastly more powerful than he." The Admiral sighed briefly. "I, however, am not so foolish. Once this planet is destroyed, there will be one less potential threat to the Planet Trade Organization. We're already having enough trouble as it is with Namekians, might as well eliminate another pesky one."

"N-namekians?" Tien asked under his breath, wondering how they would fit into this.

"Or rather, just the one, but I'd rather not have this 'Piccolo' opposing us either. In any case, you don't wish for your planet to be destroyed, and I yearn for a good fight."

Vegeta immediately laughed as the Arcosian finished his sentence. "Let me take a guess, if you win, you get to destroy Earth." The Saiyan asked, causing Haabu to chuckle.

"You're correct, although it wasn't hard to guess. But there is a bright side, if Vegeta can somehow manage to defeat me, I'll call off my ships and we'll leave." Haabu looked around at Tien, then Vegeta to see what their reactions would be.

"I… I don't know…" Tien said, looking over towards Vegeta "Do you think you can beat him?"

"What other option do you have, human?" The Arcosian asked, his intimidating features seemingly becoming more pronounced as Tien realized how bad of a situation they were in. "Either you accept my proposal, or I order my men to fire on the planet. I'd say it's in your best interest to accept my deal."

"Of course I accept, and once I mop the floor with you, I'll tear your head from your neck and mount it on my wall." Vegeta accepted sadistically, eager to finally destroy a member of the Arcosian race.

"Wonderful, I've been waiting for a challenge. I'll have my men teleport us to Earth." Haabu said in an almost genial tone, his long tail almost wagging behind him, betraying his anticipation.

As the Arcosian admiral twisted around and began to walk away, Tien shook his head and nearly shouted as he spoke, "Absolutely not, I won't risk Earth's safety in this battle!" He threw his arm across his chest in protest, although Haabu only tossed a slight glance behind his back at the defiant human.

"Were you listening?" The Arcosian asked in a more harsh tone, "the hull couldn't take a battle of that magnitude, and I'm not ordering this ship to go to another planet. That would be in direct violation of Cooler's orders; he would find out immediately." Haabu paused for a moment, and laughed to himself quietly, "Unless, of course, you expect us to fight on your moon?" His laughter grew louder. "I wouldn't mind, but poor, weak-lunged Vegeta here wouldn't be able to even survive in the vacuum, let alone put up a fight against me."

Tien growled out in anger - he knew that Haabu was right, but that didn't mean he liked the idea of the two duking it out on the planet's surface. Without so much as another word, he sighed in resignation and nodded his head. The Arcosian grinned and looked forward once more, resuming his walk down the hallway.

As Vegeta followed, Tien looked back at Fiore, who still had the terrified look upon her face. He walked over and knelt down to her level, trying to get her attention. "Fiore, look at me." He said in a soft voice, relieved when the woman lifted her head and looked into his eyes. "We need to go, I know you just remembered something traumatizing, but once we're back on Earth I'll have someone come and get you, alright?" As he waited for a response, the footsteps from the hall ceased.

"Please, by all means, take your time. It may only cost you your planet." Haabu threatened from the hallway in a monotone voice.

Vegeta also growled out in frustration, obviously anticipating his battle "Get the woman up and moving, she's been nothing but a burden this whole time."

"Don't listen to him, just get up, take my hand and we'll get off this ship." Tien reassured her. She nodded at him and rose to her feet, as did Tien. "Good, now let's go." He offered her his hand, but she refused it, sighing, her body momentarily shuddering, before clenching her fists.

"Thank you, but I can walk by myself." Fiore walked forward past Tien, and he followed behind her. The Arcosian started down the hallway for a third time, with a grinning Vegeta immediately following behind his waving cape.

It was silent only for a moment when Haabu began to speak once more, much to the chagrin of those following him.

"I suppose you may be wondering how this teleportation technology works." He questioned, waiting a moment for a response, only to be met with tense silence. "Well, since you all seem so intrigued, allow me to explain." The Arcosian went on, obviously not caring whether they wished to hear it or not. "Now listen carefully, because this is brand new technology, straight from the brightest minds of the Planet Trade Organization, which of course is an organization I'm sure some of you know _all _about." The Saiyan prince grunted in both disgust and acknowledgement, while Fiore opted not to respond at all. "You see, no empire on all the planets, in all of the galaxies, in all of the universe - or multiverse, if you're so inclined to believe such a theory - could rival the Planet Trade Organization's sheer technological might. Nothing is impossible, as long as you are willing to make sacrifices in the name of science."

Vegeta laughed quietly to himself, "Are you going to explain how this teleportation works? Or do you just like the sound of your own voice?"

"Now, now, Vegeta, although my voice has quite a melodic tone, I was beginning to get to that." Haabu's tail twisted behind him as he crossed his arms in front of himself "You see, just as my tremendous power was only available to me through a combination of sacrifice and science, so was the technology capable of transporting individuals long distances in a short span of time. We don't merely kill all inhabitants of a planet that we take control of, no, instead they may go to a much greater purpose: scientific advancement."

Although Haabu could not see it, Tien's face distorted in disgust. "You mean you wiped out entire races, only to keep a few alive so they could be your guinea pigs?!"

The Arcosian laughed at his words, almost as if he were laughing at a child's ignorance. "Foolish human, you and your entire race are held back by such idiotic ethical codes, regarding even those not of your own kind. Were we to go back in time and forgo our use of intelligent alien species as test subjects, we would be nowhere close to where we are today. After all, only an intelligent being can relay to us how painful beaming down to a planet from a ship in orbit can truly be." He chuckled, only increasing Tien's disgust further. "It was truly fascinating, some of the things I had heard of, regarding what became of the test subjects. Some became massive lumps of mutated flesh. Others were vaporized instantly, and most curiously of all, some vanished completely, without a trace of where they had gone. Most likely to deep space, where they died a quick, relatively painless death. Quite lucky, compared to some of the more severe cases." he chuckled.

"The more you talk, the less I like this idea of teleportation," Tien said aloud, "especially if so many innocent test subjects were killed just to make it."

"We can't have their deaths be in vain, now, can we?" Haabu asked rather coldly, turning his head to look at the human for a brief moment. "No, I can't have that, it wouldn't be the _right _thing to do. Then all their sacrifices would for nothing; amusing, but ultimately unproductive."

"You sicken me, and I hope Vegeta annihilates you, because if he doesn't, I just might." Tien threatened in a gruff tone.

"You won't have a chance, Tien, because he'll merely be a bloody stain on the ground when I'm through." The Saiyan boasted, his confidence not affecting the Arosian in the slightest.

"An interesting idea, perhaps if Vegeta fails to defeat me, I'll allow you to try your hand." Haabu suggested, smirking to himself. "I'm certainly not afraid of one lowly monkey, why should I be afraid of two?" Vegeta and Tien both snarled at the Arcosian, but neither said a single word back. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to finally tell you how this technology works. You see, when you step inside of a special room, one of my men on the outside triangulates a position on the planet below us, and transports us down to the surface via a strong beam of light. The light encapsulates our bodies and protects us from the harshness of space, as well as the entry of the atmosphere of Earth, and finally gently places us back down on the planet."

"So, what you're saying is it's not really teleportation at all?" Tien wondered aloud, secretly cursing himself for becoming so curious.

"No, I suppose it isn't. Just an extremely fast transportation, via strong beams of light. Like a space elevator, but without the car, to put it in terms you might understand." Haabu explained.

"Sorry, but I don't." Tien ground out, fists clenched.

"Oh? Your planet doesn't have such technology yet? My mistake, I overestimated your intelligence and advancements." Haabu said haughtily.

Tien growled in response, "No, I meant that I don't understand _why_ you'd sacrifice innocent lives for the sake of simple _convenience_!"

The tall Arcosian half-turned to the human as they walked, eyeing him curiously. "Simple convenience?" he scoffed, "You didn't hear - or understand - anything I just said, did you? I do so hate wasting my breath on those without vision..." he sighed with mock disappointment.

"Spare me your lies, Admiral, you know just as well as I do what you and your men are doing is wrong." The human rebuked, to which the Arcosian merely laughed.

"Say what you will, but we've yielded results far beyond what any of your human scientists could muster." Haabu stopped in front of a large door; a pad next to it was blank. Though they had seen many across the ship, he still hadn't figured out what their purpose was. "You may postulate as much as you'd like about my moral stances, but from where I stand, I believe you're simply a closed-minded fool. Nothing more, nothing less." Haabu lifted his hand up and placed it on the pad, his rather large palm covered nearly the entire surface of the pad as it scanned what it could. After a few moments, the door slid open, and inside was a rather large room with a circular tube in the middle. They walked forward for a few moments in silence, Vegeta, Fiore, and Tien inspected the tube in the middle of the room as the Arcosian turned to a few of the men in the room and nodded at them.

"Men, my _friends _and I need to get to Earth as quickly as possible. Please, would you be so kind as to open the doors for us?" The men shot to attention and nodded at their admiral, not daring to question him as they began to tap away on their consoles, and sure enough, only a few seconds later the door to the large tube opened up. The door itself was completely seamless with the rest of the tube, or so it appeared, and opened to the side. Haabu turned to his three 'guests' and frowned slightly at their distrusting expressions, though how genuine, none could tell. "Allow me to be the first to enter, I wouldn't want you to think I'm trying to trick you." The Admiral whirled around and walked quickly into the tube, the floor of which seemed to be completely invisible.

Vegeta began to walk forward, Tien reaching his hand out to try and stop him for a moment, but bringing it back at the last second. "I suppose I don't have a choice…" He sighed and shook his head, beginning to walk forward before he felt a hand grabbing his right arm. "F-fiore, what are you doing?" He asked, turning to face her.

She looked away for a moment, a deep frown set on her face. She'd been silent the whole way to the room, but she'd also taken everything in that Tien had said about her former employers. "There's a lot I'm not proud of, working for the Planet Trade Organization has to be one of the greatest mistakes I ever made…" She sighed out and shook off her frown, looking up at Tien with eyes burning with some kind of passion "Please, if Vegeta can't finish the job, take this monster down. He's no better than Frieza, no better than Cold."

Tien looked at Fiore for a moment in confusion, but ultimately he realized what was going on. "You just want to see him die so you can have some kind of revenge, for whatever happened to you. Is that it?" He asked, eliciting a slow nod from the female. Tien sighed and grabbed the hand on his arm, moving it down to her side and releasing it "It won't help you feel better about it, you know."

"How would you know, have you ever been betrayed like I have?" She asked him in a louder tone, a piercing stare being shot at the three-eyed human as he delivered an equally cold one to her.

"Yes, but now isn't the time to talk about this. Once this is all over, I'll tell you everything that happened to me, but right now there is an Arcosian admiral with a mega laser targeted straight at Earth." Tien broke his stare and sighed out in frustration, trying to regain his composure.

"Are you done with your lovers' quarrel, can we get on with our business?" Vegeta shouted out to the two from the tube-room.

Tien turned around and glared harshly at Vegeta, beginning to walk forward towards the room. "Shut up, Vegeta, or I'll make you shut up." The Saiyan growled at the human, but decided against antagonizing him further. After Tien walked in, Fiore followed suit with a look of both anger and sadness in her expression, although she stayed silent as Haabu gave the word to his men to close the doors. Vegeta, Tien and Fiore all looked on in astonishment as a brilliant beam of light encased their bodies — although it wasn't harming their retinas, they each squinted out of habit. Almost as soon as the light engulfed their bodies, the floor beneath them disappeared, and Haabu let out one final chuckle.

"This is the fun part." The Arcosian grinned and crossed his arms as the four of them were shot through the tube in an instant, and much to the amazement and utter surprise of everyone but Haabu, were standing on the surface of Earth in what appeared to be less than a second.

Haabu took note of his surroundings as quickly as possible, while the others merely stood in place, unable to move due to sheer shock of what had just happened. As Haabu turned around, he noticed two peculiar figures a short distance away, and it appeared that they noticed him as well.

"I-is that… King Cold?!" He heard one of them shout.

"King Cold…?" Haabu said to himself, attempting to figure out how these two humans would know the identity of his deceased emperor. After he took a closer look at one of them, he soon realized that only one of them was human, the other was a Saiyan. "Ah, so it appears you still have _**a**_ subject to rule over, Vegeta." The Arcosian chuckled as he stressed the singular nature of the member of Vegeta's race, looking over at the three shocked individuals. Vegeta shook his head a few times to snap out of it, and snarled at Haabu's comment.

"That is no Saiyan, only a shell of one." he insisted, looking over at Kakarot and his lackey, Scar.

The Admiral sighed, shaking his head as he turned back to look at the two advancing beings he didn't know. "Still, it would have been nice to know that I should have expected more company." Haabu had already deciphered that they must have been waiting under the ship in case he had decided to use his laser to destroy the planet. It was a foolish idea, to think that anyone could stop a weapon of such magnitude, but he was mildly impressed that they even had the foresight for such a plan in the first place.

Tien and Fiore snapped out of their shock just as Scar and Goku landed next to Haabu, each with stern looks on their face and in a fighting stance.

"Who are you?" Goku asked without hesitation, looking over at Tien for a moment "And why are you with him, Tien?"

Scar nodded and looked at Vegeta curiously. The Saiyan was stretching, and appeared to be readying himself for a battle. "What's going on Vegeta? We're kind of out of the loop right now."

"What's going on is that I'm about to destroy this cretin and save your pathetic planet." The prince explained, stretching out his arms and doing a few backflips.

Haabu chuckled and shook his head. "That remains to be seen. Ah, how rude, let me introduce myself. I am Admiral Haabu, it is a pleasure for me to grace you with my presence." Scar and Goku looked at each other for a moment in sheer bewilderment before either of them spoke again.

"You mean, you're the one in charge of the armada of ships guarding Earth?" Scar asked, not lowering his defenses for a moment. "Why the hell would you come down to Earth?!"

"Ah, an excellent question." Haabu cracked his neck to the left, turning to his side and beginning to pace back and forth "You see, an Admiral has many duties to his fleet, and none of them are particularly riveting, if you catch my meaning."

"Don't listen to him, he just likes to hear himself talk." Vegeta explained to the two as he cracked his knuckles, "Let him go on like that and I'm sure he'll explain to you all about how he became an Admiral in the first place."

Haabu stopped mid pace and smirked at Vegeta "Although we've only known each other for such a short time, you already know _so _much about me. Perhaps I didn't give you enough credit." The giant Arcosian sighed out and turned to face the two newcomers "Your friend was correct, I do enjoy speaking, even if it must be to those who cannot truly comprehend my words."

Scar sneered at the Arcosian in disgust. "I'd prefer if you stop pandering to yourself and get to the point of why you're even here right now." It was almost as if he were back in his own time, being harassed by the Androids once again.

"Why don't I? That way we won't be here until the grass dies of boredom." Vegeta interrupted, angering Haabu who was about to begin speaking. "The short answer; we're going to fight one-on-one. If I win, he orders his ships to retreat." The prince grinned to himself, crossing his arms.

Goku tilted his head curiously. "And what if he wins?" The Saiyan asked, prompting a nasty glare from Vegeta.

"Nothing, because there's no way in hell that I'm letting this freak defeat me." The prince boasted, glaring straight at Haabu, who was still rather cross at his lines being stolen.

"Your overconfidence will be your undoing, my _'friend'_" Haabu exposited, turning his attention away from his adversary for the uninformed duo mere feet away from him. "What Vegeta failed to mention was that I get to annihilate this planet if he is defeated."

Goku and Scar reeled back in surprise and disgust at what they had just heard "What?! Why do you think we wouldn't just kill you right here and now?" Scar threatened, only causing the Arcosian to laugh at his words.

"You think I'm an idiot?" He questioned, looking around at everyone in the vicinity "My men have been ordered to destroy this planet should my life signal be erased, and I've made the necessary precautions to make sure that they have ready access to that information. So you see, Vegeta, even if you do somehow manage to defeat me, your planet will not be safe unless I am safely returned to my ship."

"You coward!" Tien shouted, turning the group's attention to him "Using the planet as a shield, so we can't go all out against you. You're despicable!" The three-eyed warrior looked over to Goku and Scar. "You two have to stay here, in case this bastard pulls anything, but we'll find a suitable place to fight not far from here."

Haabu smirked and shook his head, crossing his arms in contempt for the words of the green-clad human "Call me anything you wish, I'm merely being pragmatic." He then turned to face the two he had just met and gave a small bow. "It is unfortunate that you cannot witness my strength, but it appears that you will both be firsthand witnesses to the power of my armada."

"Get out of here, before I knock this pretentious creep out." Scar demanded, turning his back on the Arcosian without another word and dashing back to his earlier position. Goku looked up at Haabu, who turned to face the Saiyan just as he gave a tough-looking glare.

"No, no, let me guess. If I kill any of your friend, you'll make me pay?" The Arcosian said in a mocking tone, not letting go of his grin for a second.

Goku didn't say a single word, instead opting to turn around and join Scar in the distance. Thinking he had 'won' against the Saiyan, Haabu turned to look at both Tien and Vegeta. "Let's get to it, shall we?" He asked, bringing his right arm forward and releasing his palm, gesturing towards Tien to move forward.

The three-eyed man turned around and began to float in the air, turning back to the others for a moment "Follow me, I know a place we can fight not far away from here."

* * *

'_Hey, come in, this is Scar speaking' _Cui's communicator picked up as he was typing.

"This is Cui, what's your situation?" The blue-skinned alien asked, just having finished helping Krillin's team out with one of their final obstacles. "Don't tell me the ship's about to fire…"

'_No! No, nothing like that.'_ Scar assured, his voice seemingly in a panic at even the thought of it, '_But something just as interesting happened. We have a visitor, here on Earth.'_

Cui was about to respond, but he couldn't think of anything to say. He turned to Dr. Brief for a moment, but he merely shrugged his shoulders.

"I haven't picked up any sign of a ship being sent to Earth, so unless it's one of our own, I don't know who it could be." The doctor admitted, turning back around to do some scans of the ship. The alien then turned to Bulma, who simply shook her head.

"Don't look at me, I have no idea." She listened intently, being just as curious as Cui was.

'_Done guessing? Well guess what, it's the admiral.' _

"_**What?!**_" Cui shouted out as he rose from his seat, nearly knocking over his drink. "You can't be serious, how could he have gotten on the planet without using a ship?!"

'_You tell me, you're the ship guy.'_ Ideas rushed into Cui's mind as soon as Scar finished talking, but only one seemed to make sense.

"Did they seem to beam down from nowhere?" He asked the man on the other side of the line.

'_Yeah, one second there was nothing, and then they appeared from nowhere.'_ Scar explained, obviously confused as to how it all had happened.

"Ah… So they finally implemented that system…" Cui said to himself, prompting curious looks from both Bulma and her father. "Look, I'll explain later, right now I want to know what Haabu is doing on Earth right now. Did you talk to him?"

'_Only for a while. He was with Vegeta, Tien, and Fiore, and apparently they made an agreement where if Vegeta could defeat him in battle, then he'd order all of his ships to retreat.' _

"What!? There's no way Vegeta is powerful enough to take on a modified Arcosian." Cui explained, shocking everyone in the room.

'_We don't have much of a choice, the bastard is smart, like Cooler. If he dies, his men are ordered to destroy the planet anyway, so it's this or nothing. We just have to hope that Vegeta trained enough to stand up to Haabu.' _

Cui sighed out and nodded his head. "Right, keep your eye on that ship…" He ended the communication and slid off his headset, placing it on his desk. Cui stood still for a moment before turning to walk towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Bulma asked, turning in her chair to face the blue-skinned alien. Cui chuckled and half turned, waving his hand at her.

"Going to watch Vegeta get the snot kicked out of him. Seems like a good last thing to do before we all die." As he began to walk towards the door again, he could hear Bulma snarl at him from behind.

"Don't give up so easily!" She shouted, getting up from her chair. "We've made it out of worse situations than this! Well…maybe not this bad, but I know that if Vegeta can't beat that Haabu guy, than Goku can stop that ship's laser from destroying the Earth!"

Cui placed his hand on the frame of the door, standing at the mouth for a moment, considering her words. "Maybe you're right." He admitted, laughing to himself. "But I think I'd still like to watch Vegeta get his ass kicked. Keep helping Krillin out, he's almost done." Cui walked out the door, leaving a bewildered Bulma behind.

"I just don't get what his problem with Vegeta is…" she said to herself, sitting back down and sighing as she continued her work.

* * *

Tien and Fiore landed up on a cliff overlooking the battleground that Haabu and Vegeta had taken up. It was a barren wasteland, like so many of the other great battlefields on Earth. The two were far enough away that Tien couldn't tell what they were saying to one another, although he could infer that it obviously wasn't pleasant, with the way that they were looking at one another. The human turned to the female next to him and sighed, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you back there, I just wanted to get off that ship." He admitted, eyeing Fiore curiously as she looked toward the ground and nodded.

"Apology accepted, and I…guess I overreacted back there, too." She let out a sigh as well, looking back up at Tien with a half smile. "Guess after this is all over, we can talk about a few things."

"Ah, yeah, right." Tien chuckled nervously, turning his head to face the two adversaries. "I guess I did say I'd tell you about that, didn't I?"

Fiore smiled, nodding as she, too, took a look back at the tall Arcosian and the prince of the Saiyans. "It'll be a nice change of pace from having to hang out with Jeice, Guldo, and Cui all the time…not that I don't like them, I just wanted to branch out, is all."

* * *

Down below, Vegeta eyed the Arcosian with a judgemental glare. Haabu merely stared at Vegeta with mild indifference, waiting for the Saiyan to say something before the silence finally got to him.

"Is there something you wish to tell me, Vegeta, or are you simply stunned by my magnificent appearance?" Haabu questioned the Saiyan, uncrossing his arms and flicking his tail in the air.

"Ha, wouldn't you just love that." Vegeta growled out, jumping back a few yards, creating a good distance between them. "I just want to make a mental image of your face, so I can remember how badly I pummeled it after this fight!" The prince's aura burst around him, at first a dull white, but then as he continued to gain power, it brightened in intensity.

"Ah, Vegeta, always with the threats. Do you feel like you're a big man now, that you have the advantage simply because you believe you can make me fear you?" Haabu laughed and swept his left leg back, raising his arms in a fighting stance. "Well then, let's see what you're made of, prince of the Saiyans."

With an agitated roar, Vegeta rushed at Haabu as quickly as he could, throwing a punch that the Arcosian dodged to the right of, bringing his tail over and slamming it into Vegeta's back, sending him a few feet before he regained his balance and turned around.

"You must be kidding. After all the threats and theatrics, that's the move you start with?" Haabu mocked, swiftly pulling both of his arms back into fists. "_This _is how you start a battle!"

Haabu quickly flashed forward to Vegeta's position, giving the Saiyan only enough time to block one of the Arcosian's fists aimed toward his stomach as the other crashed into his cheek, forcing the Saiyan to reel back. Vegeta wasted no time getting his momentum back, firing off a few ki blasts that Haabu deflected into the mountains as Vegeta dashed forward and rammed a fist into Haabu's midsection, and upon noticing no retaliation, a volley of fists followed. With one final blow, Vegeta crashed his right fist into the Arcosian's stomach and jumped upward to deliver an uppercut.

"How quaint." He could hear Haabu remark as he grabbed Vegeta's hand mid-punch, throwing him to the side as he brushed off his armor. "It seems you scuffed my armor, Vegeta. I'll have to make you _pay _for that."

Vegeta rolled over on the ground a few times before he grabbed onto the soil and propped himself up on one knee, staring worriedly at his much larger opponent. '_Th-this is madness! For all of my training, this Arcosian is still that much stronger than me?!' _The Saiyan rose to both feet and wiped the dust from the side of his face, laughing out to spite his foe.

"Mere warm ups, if you truly wish to die so soon, you should have just told me!" Vegeta's aura exploded once more as he charged off into the Arcosian, this time dodging to the left of him as he threw a punch that whizzed right by the Saiyan. Vegeta turned midair and sent a right hook crashing into Haabu's exposed face, but instead of following through with the punch as he assumed he would, Vegeta's fist was stopped cold in its tracks.

Without moving from his position, Haabu moved his eyes to look at the visibly frightened Vegeta. "Nice try." he said, using his other fist to throw a punch at Vegeta, who barely managed to dodge out of the way and land a few feet away from the massive alien. As he straightened his posture, Haabu sighed and shook his head.

"I'm disappointed, I was truly hoping you might have been a challenge. It appears I sorely overestimated your abilities." Vegeta breathed out heavily in shock as the Arcosian took a step forward, not winded in the slightest by the prince's punch.

"Y-you…" Vegeta grunted out, jumping into the air quickly, thrusting his arms behind his body. Haabu merely watched with a grin as Vegeta charged an attack. "I'll show you my power!" A massive collection of energy quickly coalesced behind the Saiyan's back, exuding a brilliant purple glow as he flew further away from his opponent.

"Damnit Vegeta, you know you can't fire that at the planet, it'll destroy us all!" Tien shouted out from the sidelines, but Vegeta completely ignored his pleas.

Haabu laughed out as he prepared himself for the attack, looking back towards Tien with a malicious grin. "Oh don't worry, _I'll_ be your saviour." He claimed mockingly in a high-pitched— at least for him— voice, turning around to stare down his attacker.

"_Galick Gun __**FIRE!**_" Vegeta shouted, thrusting his arms forward, releasing all of the energy of his powerful attack at the stationary Arcosian.

Haabu threw his palms out in front of him, letting the blast ram straight into his hands. He held it back fairly easily, exerting only a miniscule amount of effort while he was holding the attack in his hands. Tien couldn't tell if it was all an act, or if the Arcosian truly was so powerful that he could take everything that Vegeta could dish out without so much as breaking a sweat. Either way, things didn't look good at all.

As Vegeta's energy finally let out, he released the attack from his hands and panted, having released much of his energy in that attack. The smoke around the Arcosian was thick, but due to his newfound sensing abilities, Vegeta could already tell his attack barely had an impact on the Arcosian. As the smoke cleared, sure enough, Haabu was standing completely upright, arms across his chest with an expression of disappointment across his face.

The Saiyan slowly floated his way down to the ground, attempting to hide his mild exhaustion as he did so. "You…you haven't seen anything yet." Vegeta proclaimed, clenching his fists as he touched down to the ground.

"Oh, but I think that I have." Haabu said, a visible frown on his face. "I was hoping to have more fun with you, Vegeta, but I think I'll just put you out of your misery."

Vegeta grinned for a moment, pausing Haabu as he had begun to walk forward. "What's this all about? You're about to die, Saiyan, I suggest you let that **sink in**." The Arcosian threatened as he watched Vegeta's moves very carefully.

"Oh I don't think so, the fun has just started." Vegeta claimed, lowering his hand to his belt. "Didn't forget about my tail, now did you?" The Saiyan's tail uncoiled from his waist and wagged in the air for a moment, causing Haabu to laugh hysterically.

"Have I knocked the sense out of you already Vegeta?! That tail can do you no good without the moon." The Admiral laughed heartily, wiping a tear from his eye as he tried to contain himself. "Or did you expect me to have an allergic reaction to your fur?!"

As the Arcosian continued to laugh, Vegeta merely pressed the button on his belt.

"We'll see who has the last laugh, Admiral." The prince grinned, his transformation already underway.

* * *

**Will the Arcosian Admiral prove too strong for Vegeta to handle? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

* * *

**This chapter has been edited by the very talented writer Roketto (a.k.a. RyunoOhi) who also happens to write a Dragon Ball fanfiction that I have the pleasure of editing for! It's titled **_**Savior of Demons**_**, a story mainly focused on Frieza after he returns to Earth with his father to enact revenge on Goku. It's a fantastic read, I highly suggest you check it out!**

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: Roketto (a.k.a. RyunoOhi)**


	46. Chapter 41: Arcosian Might

_**Chapter 41: Arcosian Might**_

The wind quietly whistled through the rocky desert wasteland, the tension so thick it could be cut with only the sharpest knife. Goku sighed almost impatiently as he and Scar stood in place, sensing the battle that was taking place mere miles away from them with fear etched onto their faces. From what they could tell, Vegeta was expending most of his energy, while neither of them believed that the Arcosian had truly released all of his strength. It was troubling, especially to Goku, who desperately wished he could test the might of this new foe himself...but he knew that he had to stay in place in case the ship in orbit finally decided to let loose their ultimate weapon on the Earth below.

"Vegeta isn't doing so well," Scar stated aloud, kicking some dust with his boot absentmindedly to try and escape the reality of the situation. "At this rate, we might just get to see how powerful this super laser really is," the human sighed and crossed his arms in front of him, looking over to the horizon. It was horrifying to think that they wouldn't live long enough to fight the androids, but at the same time he knew that he needed to focus on the threat right here, right now.

"Vegeta has a few tricks up his sleeve; he might be able to pull a victory out. We have to hope that he can." Goku claimed hopefully, his eyes turning towards the sky while he continued sensing the battle from afar. "Yet even if he loses, we'll be ready...we have to be." he added solemnly.

Scar nodded toward his comrade, mustering a smile. "Right, no way I'm letting some alien and his ship take out Earth when I've survived worse." Again, the androids flashed into his mind, though Scar immediately repressed the memories by shaking his head violently.

Goku looked back down at Scar with a grin, almost as if to tell him there was nothing to fear.. "They're all counting on us, Scar. We can't afford to let them down."

"Yeah, I could never live it down if I—" Scar paused a moment and looked away, audibly sighing as he shook his head, "—if I failed Bulma again."

Goku walked towards his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder, nodding at him reassuringly, communicating all that he could without words. Scar nodded back with a half-hearted smile, once again drowning out the memories of his wife and son. It was all he could do to avoid feeling that burning sensation of angst flood his veins once again,

"I just wish we had a little more help, you know? We haven't seen or heard from Piccolo in a while." Scar mentioned as Goku walked a few paces away. "He's in just as much danger as we are right now and yet he hasn't reared his ugly head yet. What gives?"

The Saiyan looked into the distance thoughtfully, shaking his head. "I don't know, but I have a feeling he's been keeping track of all of this. Just because we haven't seen him,doesn't mean he isn't listening in on whatever we say."

"Yeah, you're probably right, Goku. There's no way Piccolo would just let this slide." Scar shuddered a bit, looking around for a moment. "Still, it's a creepy thought, thinking that Piccolo might be just around the corner, watching us."

The two of them stood in silence for the next few minutes, continuing to keep their senses on the battle waging not far from them. What they couldn't sense, however, was the Namekian standing a few hundred yards away behind a boulder, smirking with delight at the two fighters contemplating his presence.

"Woah, Goku, are you feeling that?" Scar asked, breaking the silence quickly to gape at Vegeta's awesome power. "That's unreal!"

Goku, with his eyes still closed, nodded. "Yeah, Vegeta's power just shot up by a ton!" The Saiyan opened his eyes and looked toward the battle, smiling, "Looks like he's finally letting loose; now's when we'll be able to see how strong he really is!"

* * *

Haabu's laughter was cut short when he noticed Vegeta's face beginning to change. The Arcosian looked up to the sky — he could find no moon in sight, which bewildered him slightly, though he still wasn't truly frightened at the Saiyan's growing power.

"You look so calm, Admiral; allow me to fix that!" Vegeta shouted as his heart rate began to pick up, every hair on his body beginning to bristle with the adrenaline of the transformation to come. Not long after, wild, ape-like fur began to grow on his visage as his body began to lengthen & expand, eventually dwarfing everyone in size and still continuing to grow at a frightfully exponential rate. His teeth soon shifted into rows of fanged teeth, giving the rather humanoid warrior a much more bestial, primal appearance.

Vegeta's body bulked up significantly as his face became enshrouded entirely in a mane of ape-like fur, the rest of his body widening to fill out his new figure. Throughout it all, the Saiyan roared with power, the ground around him trembling and quaking with his transformation.

Abreast of him, the Admiral merely watched with a wicked grin, thinking of how foolish Vegeta would deem himself once he showed him true Arcosian might. No matter how much power he gained or how tall he stood, a simple simian like him would never best an elite such as himself in combat.

"He'd better be careful...even with that form I don't know if he'll be a match for the Admiral…" Tien stated to Fiore, who looked on with awe at the spectacle of power.

"I-I've heard about Saiyan's Oozaru forms, but I never thought I'd see one occur right in front of my face…" she claimed in amazement. "How much more powerful do you think he is now?" Fiore asked as she turned to the three-eyed human.

"I can't give you an exact number like your scouters can, but I can tell that he's gotten incredibly powerful. Let's just hope that he's just as quick on his feet with the form as he was last time," Tien replied, remembering when he himself had to face Vegeta's monstrous Oozaru transformation…something he'd rather avoid doing again if he had the choice to.

Below, Vegeta grinned, showing his sharpened, fanged teeth as the Arcosian across from him laughed cockily. "What's the matter, Admiral? Have you forgotten that this form augments my already great power nearly ten fold?!" The prince nearly shouted out, causing rocks to cascade down violently from the surrounding cliffs.

Haabu stifled his laughter slightly, shaking his head. "Of course I haven't, Vegeta, but I already knew I was many times more powerful than you." he boasted, flicking his hand across the pauldrons of his armor, dropping his cape to the ground. "Although perhaps now you might give me some sort of challenge!" The Arcosian cracked his neck and curled one of his hands into fists, lifting the other hand up to beckon his foe to attack. "Come on, monkey, I've got a banana for you if you manage to hurt me!" he mocked.

Vegeta roared out once more as he flew over to Haabu, closing the gap rather quickly as he threw a powerful punch at the Arcosian. The Admiral jumped out of the way as quickly as he could back into one of the canyon walls, jumping from it with his arm at the ready.

The Oozaru turned quickly and threw another fist towards Haabu, but the Arcosian deftly rolled away and launched his arm straight at Vegeta's face.

_**FWACK!**_

The collision sent shockwaves through the area as Vegeta reeled back slightly, Haabu having already flown back up into the air to press his advantage. The Saiyan shook off the damage and turned just in time to see that Haabu was already coming back for more, but this time he was ready.

Vegeta jumped backward as Haabu's leg struck the air where the prince had been before, giving Vegeta enough time to reach out and snatch the Admiral from the air.

The massive Arcosian fit in his palm, though he knew he wouldn't be able to keep his grip on him for long, so Vegeta quickly reached his arm above his head and launched it towards the ground, throwing him straight down into the rocky land below with a loud THUD.

The prince rammed his boot down on the Arcosian's chest, grinning with satisfaction as he felt Haabu's bones being rearranged by the strike. He then lifted his boot again, keeping it suspended in mid-air for a moment's time before violently thrusting it downwards onto his foe.

_**CRASH! **_

"What!?" Vegeta shouted as his boot slammed into the solid Earth below. He looked around for a moment and saw that the Admiral had quickly sped away when Vegeta had lifted his boot, and was standing about a few dozen yards away from the massive Oozaru.

"Heh, impressive speed for such a large transformation," Haabu complimented, his armor covered in dirt and superficial damage. His breathing was slightly irregular, but he wasn't nearly as damaged, or even injured, as Vegeta had anticipated he would be.

Without another word, Vegeta snarled, opening his mouth and firing a beam straight at Haabu out of sheer desperation.

"So primitive..." the Admiral tutted, swiftly rolling to the left and barely avoiding the attack. He then quickly used his momentum to his advantage, shoving his legs off of the ground as he dashed toward the Oozaru again.

The Saiyan closed his mouth, cutting off the beam as he flailed his arm in Haabu's direction, slamming his forearm against the Arcosian. The collision sent him barreling backwards and into the side of one of the cliffs, toppling it over as soon as he made contact with the rock-formed structure. Haabu coughed slightly as he began to fall toward the ground, but he stopped midair and looked up just as Vegeta had made his way towards his form. Quickly, he tried to brace himself, but it was to no avail; the prince lifted his leg and punted his foe into the air with a mighty roar.

Vegeta jumped up and lifted his arm behind his body, throwing it forward when he reached the Arcosian a mere second later, crashing his fist into the side of the sailing Admiral. The impact of the blow caused him to spin recklessly across the sky, completely out of control. The Oozaru stopped midar and grinned, opening his mouth once more. The energy coalescing rapidly in his maw took on a yellow hue before it fired at his foe, arcing through the air.

Haabu threw out his arms, legs, and tail, stopping himself as he faced Vegeta's rapidly approaching mouth beam. With no time to dodge, Haabu crossed his arms and took the blast head-on, attempting to stop the beam from pushing him back as it crashed harder and harder against his defenses.

Not missing a beat, Vegeta ceased his beam firing and launched himself at Haabu, following the path of his beam as close as he could. After the Arcosian finally felt the last of the beam fade, he grinned up to see the massive Oozaru with his arm pulled back and a sadistic grin on his face, tearing the one from the Admiral's almost instantly.

_**THUMM! **_

Vegeta's massive fist smashed into the top right side of Haabu, catching him off guard and sending him flailing toward the ground with a mighty crash, kicking up a small maelstrom of dust as he did so.

The Saiyan rolled his head back and charged another beam in his mouth, firing it toward the ground where Haabu was attempting to get back to his feet. Vegeta moved his head around, spreading the thick yellow beam's damage across the wasteland for a few seconds before finally ceasing it and lowering himself to the charred ground below.

"Oh, man, Vegeta isn't messing around." Tien thought aloud, looking at all of the burnt ground below. "Any more power and he might have damaged the Earth; I hope he knows what he's doing..." A moment after Tien spoke, he felt a familiar power signature heading their way. He turned around for a moment in curiosity, which caught Fiore's attention. She turned around as well, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"Cui? But I thought he was helping the others on the ships?" she asked, turning to Tien.

"They must have all finished...either that or he thinks he can help out." The alien girl laughed at Tien's words, shaking her head.

"You obviously don't know Cui if you think he'd risk his life against someone he knows is many times stronger than him." She turned her head and stopped her laughter as Cui finally stopped in front of them, looking at Vegeta with a grin.

"What'd I miss? Did he already get his ass kicked in his regular form?" The alien questioned, cursing under his breath, "Damn, I missed it…"

Tien and Fiore turned back towards the battle, eyeing the smoke surrounding the Arcosian on the ground intently. "Vegeta's winning right now, somehow," Tien explained, almost not believing it himself, "He got a few good hits on the Admiral, but the battle is far from over."

Cui grinned and crossed his arms "Good, I wouldn't want this to end without seeing Vegeta's face get pounded in a few times." Tien looked over at Cui with slight concern, but decided against saying anything to him. After all, now was the time they needed to be unified more than any other.

The Oozaru finally touched down on the ground, letting the smoke clear from the area as he bellowed out a monstrous laugh.

"So much for the almighty Admiral Haabu!" he shouted, eyeing the figure in the dust as it dispersed. Vegeta's laughter ceased as he stared in shock at the Arcosian, who was standing defiantly with his arms across his chest.

"As you were saying, my furred friend?" the Admiral questioned, his body only slightly burned from the energy attacks he had taken. One of the shoulder guards for his armor had been broken off, and the chest piece had taken some heavy damage in the fire, as it had a few holes in it where the heat had been too much for it to take. Haabu himself had a few cuts and bruises on the left side of his face, blood trickling down while he shook his head.

"Despite your best efforts, I'm still standing. However, I have yet to reveal my true power…and when I use it, I'll ensure that you won't even be able to walk in the next life!" The Arcosian shouted out, bulking up his muscles slightly. He thrust his arms to the side as his aura exploded almost instantly, chunks of ground being ripped from the Earth and tossed aside as his power raised further.

"How much more powerful can this guy get!?" Tien shouted from the sidelines, growing increasingly worried about the entire predicament. With each passing moment, Haabu appeared more and more unbeatable.

Vegeta snarled and rushed in at his opponent before he finished powering up, forcing the Admiral to dodge to the side and jump straight towards the Oozaru.

Haabu crashed his fist into Vegeta's side, pushing the Saiyan back and nearly knocking him over. In swift retaliation, Vegeta firmly planted his foot on the ground and stopped himself, tossing another punch at Haabu.

The Oozaru's fist soared through the air, the Admiral having already moved out of the way of the blow. He rammed his entire body into Vegeta's stomach, lifting him from the ground as he threw a devastating punch straight into the Saiyan's gut, sending him soaring forward ahead of Haabu.

The Admiral moved his arms forward in front of himself, fingers spread apart as energy coalesced on each individual fingertip. "Time to end this game, Vegeta!" He shouted out, thrusting his arms out at a forty five degree angle, shooting ten different beams from each one of his deadly fingertips.

Vegeta stopped himself just in time to witness each of the thin beams curving from their original path as Haabu's hands crashed together, guiding the beams straight at him. He knew then that he'd need to defend himself, and quickly, before he were to lose to this damn Arcosian and be proven a fool.

The Saiyan crossed his arms and tucked his legs up, trembling as he gathered as much energy as he could. With a violent howl, the Oozaru thrust his limbs outward and created a barrier of explosive energy around himself, detonating the beams as soon as they struck against the invisible force field of ki and causing them to combust in a violent display of power.

Once the beams had ceased and dissipated, Vegeta let his arms loose, panting lightly as he looked toward the grinning Arcosian.

"Using an explosive wave to detonate my beams prematurely? Quite the tactic; you're _much _more intelligent than I gave you credit for." Haabu closed his fists, letting them fall to his sides as he sized up his foe once again.

"Heh, th-that was nothing." Vegeta panted out, his booming voice rumbling the area around them, but betraying his exhaustion nonetheless. Both fighters slowly floated towards the ground, eyes harshly locked onto the others, both attempting to intimidate their foe.

"So you say, but I can see you're wearing down." Haabu observed, placing his left hand around his right arm's wrist, gathering energy in the palm of his right hand. "One more powerful attack should be enough to finish this fight." He chuckled, Vegeta attempting to shake off his exhaustion as he felt the immense power raising in the Admiral's hand. "Let me show you my true power!"

The Oozaru seemed to brace himself for an energy attack, but instead, the Admiral rushed forward, his right fist surging with a powerful energy. Mustering as much energy as he could, Vegeta jumped back and into the air, firing off massive amounts of small ki attacks at the Arcosian in an attempt to wear him out. Vegeta didn't stop, even for a moment, rushing backward as quickly as he could as he expended his energies on the small ki balls, smoke filling up the air as they made contact with Haabu's body.

After a few moments, Vegeta ceased his onslaught stopped himself, charging yet another beam in his mouth.

The beam was fired quickly into the smoke, dispersing it quickly and ramming into the Arcosian head on.

'Take the full power of a Saiyan Elite!' Vegeta thought to himself, expending even more energy into his attack. Something was off, however… 'W-where is he?!' Vegeta thought to himself, having seen Haabu disappear within the beam somehow. His question was answered almost immediately when Haabu somehow managed to fly out of Vegeta's mouth blast, fist still surging with a blue aura.

"Nice try!" The Admiral shouted, ramming his fist into the side of Vegeta's face, sending him hurtling towards the ground. Haabu laughed through his light panting, his body steaming from the heat of Vegeta's attack, and his right hand's energy finally dissipating as well. "Your primitive beam couldn't penetrate the power that I held in my hand. I was able to run right through it." Haabu explained as the Saiyan's body rammed into the ground, creating a large crater.

"I-I've never seen anyone do something like that before…" Tien said to himself, observing the Arcosian with slight admiration as well as contempt.

"What do you mean?" Fiore asked him "The way he flew right through Vegeta's attack?"

"That was impressive." Cui added, arms crossed as he smirked at the sight of the Oozaru in the dirt. "Looks like Vegeta isn't going to last much longer," he added with a smirk. Despite their both being forced to co-exist, Cui could always derive enjoyment from seeing Vegeta hit the pavement again and again.

"Don't count him out just yet; I think he's been holding something back." Tien added hopefully, Cui scoffing at his suggestion.

"If you say so. I hope you have a plan B if he isn't." The blue alien stated, eyeing the human closely.

Back in the battle, Haabu landed back on the ground, shaking his head in disappointment at the fighter in front of him.

"After such a massive power gain, you're still nothing compared to my might." he sighed, laughing to himself, "Still, I had fun pummeling your arrogant face." As the Admiral watched, Vegeta began to stand up from the crater. Slowly, but surely, he rose to his feet once more.

"I-I'm not done with you yet!" he pronounced, his breathing now harder than before as he had expended most of his energy trying to slow down the Admiral.

Haabu's eyes widened slightly in surprise; not only had Vegeta managed to survive one of his most powerful strikes, but he was still able to get up onto his own two feet without assistance. "Your resilience is simply astounding…" the Arcosian praised, chuckling to himself, "Or perhaps it's stupidity, a smarter man would have _stayed down._" The contempt in his voice was clear, but Vegeta brushed it off.

"I haven't even…shown you what I'm truly capable of…" The Saiyan panted, clenching his fists as he began to power up. His aura exploded as large boulders began to lift around him, the ground shaking violently as Vegeta attempted to raise his power. Haabu stood idly by, crossing his arms as he watched intently, hoping that perhaps Vegeta wasn't full of hot air this time.

As large chunks of the earth were ripped from the ground, Tien watched on in both awe and confusion. "H-his power is rising, but…"

"But what?" Both Fiore and Cui asked simultaneously. Tien began to breath slightly harder than before, finally realizing what was happening.

"He can't do it! He's just expending energy right now; he's not pushing through!" The human shouted, watching as Vegeta's aura violently flared.

"I don't have all day, Vegeta. If you could finish this sometime soon, it would be much appreciated!" Haabu mocked the Saiyan, watching as he continued to push himself further and further, but to no avail.

"Th-this can't be happening!" Vegeta shouted, still expending as much energy as he could muster "I need it, where is it?!" he roared, using the last reserves of his energy attempting to find the transformation within him. "I _**NEED IT!**_" The ground shook as the Oozaru howled out, his aura finally began to peter out. "No! Why!?" he defiantly shouted once more, his aura finally disappearing completely as he fell to his knees with a crash.

The Saiyan's hands fell to the ground, his head shaking in denial as his breathing started to calm. It was over, Tien knew it, and so did Haabu.

"Then that's it, nothing new for me? I'm sure it would have disappointed me all the same." Haabu admitted to himself, slowly starting towards the wounded and dejected Vegeta with a single clear, cruel intention. "I've let you thrash around for long enough, it's time to put you out of your misery." As he approached the Saiyan, Tien could tell what was about to happen. He looked around somewhat nervously at Cui and Fiore, but both were fixated on the scene that lay before them.

'I… I can't just stay here and do nothing...' Tien told himself, gritting his teeth as he stared down at the powerful enemy on the ground. 'But he defeated Vegeta so easily...'

The Arcosian came to a halt a few yards away from the Oozaru, chuckling to himself in his usual display of arrogance. "It's time to finish what Frieza couldn't. What a fool he was to keep you around." As Haabu raised his right arm and flattened his palm, he could hear Vegeta growl slightly. "Oh, have I struck a chord, talking about your old employer? Well let me be the one to say this, since he's too dead to tell you himself. Vegeta, the Planetary Trade Organization is no longer in need of your… limited services. Consider yourself _fired!_" Haabu shouted as a blast was fired from his palm.

There was a massive explosion when contact was made, smoke rose out into the air, accompanied by the laughter of the Admiral. It was less subdued this time, but he still controlled it and clenched his fists in victory. "I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about workers compensation. Don't worry, _monkey_, I'm sure that our medical experts can have you fixed up right away!" His sickening cackling rung throughout the wasteland, his eyes still fixated on the lump in front of him, eager to see the damage he had caused.

As the smoke dispersed, his jaw nearly dropped.

"T-Tien?!" Cui shouted down, looking to his side to confirm that he was no longer there. He had been a blur; his speed was so intense that the alien couldn't even keep his eye on him!

"What is this? How did you block my attack?" Haabu questioned, one eyebrow raised at the three eyed human, who seemed to be panting slightly as his arms fell to the side from his defensive, cross armed position. "More importantly, _why?_ Why save this scum?"

Tien smiled back at Haabu and took up a fighting stance, his aura expanding as he calmly gathered energy "I don't need a reason to want to _piss you off_." The fighter glanced back at Vegeta for a moment, who still seemed to be out of breath. "Are you alright, Vegeta?" He asked in a genuinely concerned tone.

Vegeta scoffed, but didn't say a word. His fingers dug into the ground, teeth grinding as he down and gingerly touched the button on his belt, not wanting to destroy it in his anger.

"Move now, human. Vegeta has given up. He's resigned to die, and I intend to be the one to send him to the next world." Haabu explained, walking forward as Vegeta's hair receded back into his body, his massive form reverting to his more diminutive size. He remained on the ground, but said nothing, and didn't even bother looking up at either his attacker or the one who saved his life.

"No, you said you would fight me. Now that you've beaten Vegeta, it's my turn." Tien proclaimed with authority, forcing the Arcosian to stop dead in his tracks.

"Ha, fight you?" The Admiral laughed, shaking his head "I merely said that I would _consider _it, and even then, only if I were to finish off my first opponent." Haabu took one more look at Vegeta, shaking his head in disappointment. "So, as I said, move, and perhaps I will allow you the pleasure of a fight with me."

Tien shook his head, holding his ground "If you want to take Vegeta's life, then you'll have to get through me first." Haabu looked up and down Tien's body, moving his head from side to side as he sighed loudly.

"Stubborn. I'll have you writhing on the ground in minutes, but if you truly wish the save this pathetic fool's life, then I'll be doing this galaxy a favor by taking out yet another pathetic fool!" Haabu grinned and dashed towards Tien, whose aura turned a brilliant crimson hue as he blocked Haabu's punch and reeled his leg back, quickly throwing it up and slamming his foot into the Arcosian's chin.

"Vegeta, get to safety, _**now**_!" Tien ordered as Haabu's body was flung into the air, Tien swiftly following after. The Saiyan finally looked up as Tien threw a punch at Haabu, but the Arcosian had recovered midair and blocked him.

"Fool, even in my Oozaru form I stood little chance." Vegeta said under his breath, raising to his feet, his armor scuffed, and his mouth dripping blood from Haabu's brutal attack. He rose into the sky and flew to the opposite end of the battlefield, not wanting to associate with his former rival, Cui.

The Admiral dodged another punch thrown by Tien, but wasn't so lucky with the third. Tien's fist collided with Haabu's midsection, sending him reeling back in the sky, although he soon regained his composure. "Impressive, very impressive for a human." Haabu complimented, letting out a pained breath from the blow he had been dealt "I wasn't even prepared for a Saiyans fist to damage me, but a lower life form such as yourself? It's truly remarkable how strong you are."

Tien scowled, staring down his opponent. "Stop with the patronization, I don't need any compliments from you... they only sicken me, you monster."

Haabu's eyes widened in a feign of shock "Oh, I was under the impression that this was a gentlemen's duel. No need for such harsh words, especially when I was prepared to offer you work aboard my ship." Tien didn't reply, only staring in contempt of the being in front of him. Haabu bellowed out with laughter after seeing Tien's expression. "So sorry, the offer has already expired. By the look on your face, I could tell that you wanted to come along, but I can't have crew members calling me a 'monster' and damaging my reputation."

The three eyed human had heard enough, his aura exploded once again into red, his sudden burst of speed surprising even the Arcosian as his laughter ceased and he threw his arms out to defend. Haabu flinched slightly for only a moment, but after opening them, he couldn't see where Tien had gone. He looked all around, but he was nowhere to be seen. Haabu growled, almost beginning to shout before Tien appeared in front of him, a nasty scowl staring him down as his knee brutally rammed right into the Arcosians stomach.

Haabu reeled back in pain, clenching his midsection as Tien disappeared once more. The Admiral let out short, rapid breaths as he released his stomach and regained his posture, this time he wasn't going to let that lesser being get the best of him. His breathing slowed, and he attempted to focus his senses, finally noticing a slight blur and laughing out as his arm reached out and caught Tien's leg mid-swing. The humans face turned to one of slight surprise as Haabu flung his tail out and slapped Tien across the face, giving him enough time to pivot his body and toss the human up into the air.

"You won't get the best of me!" Haabu shouted, rushing at his opponent, flinging his fist down, cursing as he heard it _whish_ through the air. He locked his sights on Tien, however, and wouldn't let him get away as he began to doggedly chase him around in the sky. The human looked back at Haabu and grinned, his already crimson aura expanding as he seemed to get faster and faster, out speeding the Admiral greatly. "H-how is he that fast?!" Haabu shouted to himself, teeth clenched in a near rage as he decided to improvise, tossing out one of his hands, coalescing energy on his fingertips as he had done before "If I can't catch you, I'll reel you in!" He shouted, five brilliant beams extending outward as the Admiral waved his hand toward his prey. The beams wrapped themselves around Tien's leg, burning into it as Haabu flung Tien back toward himself.

"Agh!" Tien shouted out, feeling the horrible burning sensation disappear, along with the beams as his body flew towards the Admiral. Haabu reeled back his fist, taking aim at the human before him.

_**WHAM!**_

Haabu's fist rammed straight into Tien's chest, flinging him back toward the way he was originally flying. The Admiral grinned for a moment, watching as Tien grabbed onto his burned ankle.

"Oh shit, Tien isn't doing so well…" Fiore observed, wondering if she could do anything to help.

"He's doing better than Vegeta, I'll give him that much." Cui stated, arms crossed as he looked down at 'rival' with disgust. "This is only the beginning, don't even think about running in there... you'll only get yourself killed."

Fiore looked over at Cui for a moment, a puzzled expression on her face. 'Since when do you care about anyone but yourself?' She wondered, shaking it off to make sure that Tien was doing alright.

The three eyed human clenched his teeth and closed the pain out of his mind as his aura bursted into red once more, using his incredible speed to try and catch Haabu off guard. The Arcosian was alarmed at his quick recovery, but was able to dodge the punch and land a solid elbow to Tien's back, sending him flying toward the ground. He stopped himself quickly, bursting out of the way of one of Haabu's kicks, and positioned himself in the sky.

The Admiral's foot crashed into the ground below, creating a small crater in the ground and sending shockwaves echoing throughout the environment.

* * *

"It-it's in full swing now!" Scar shouted as he felt his friend and apprentice battling it out with the Arcosian. "Vegeta's lost, but he's not dead. It seems like Tien's taken the fight into his own hands."

Goku seemed delighted and disappointed at the same time. He was glad that Tien was back in the game, holding his own against such a powerful opponent, but he also knew that if Tien wasn't able to stop him, that they would all be in serious trouble. "He's no slouch, but neither was Vegeta." Goku stated, doing his best to keep an eye on the sky as well as his mind on the fight.

"Tien is the best fighter on this planet, besides me, you, Piccolo and Gohan. He won't lose, I'll give him a beating myself if he does." Scar said, praising Tien's prowess. Goku laughed a bit, remembering when Tien had beaten him long ago in the 22nd World Martial Arts tournament. He was just a kid, then, but Tien was a fierce opponent.

"If there's one thing Tien is best at, it's surprises." Goku claimed, remembering all of his hidden techniques and abilities. Scar nodded, the both of them returning to silence as they felt the shockwaves of a recent attack…

* * *

Haabu shot a wicked glance back towards the sky, glaring at the human as he slowly raised himself back into the air, his guard up the entire time. Tien scowled at the Arcosian for a few seconds before his aura flared up once more, Haabu noticing the change in color this time.

Before he had a chance to postulate a theory on why his opponents aura had changed, Tien rushed forward and unleashed a relentless barrage of punches at Haabu. The Arcosian blocked and dodged many of them, and the few that connected he made sure to his a well armored portion of his body. Tien's arms were jetting out faster than anyone could see, and yet the Admiral was still able to hold his own, much to the observers despair.

After only a few more brief seconds, Haabu let out a terribly loud shout, thrusting his arms outward and sending an invisible wall of ki pulsating through the sky. It pushed Tien back slightly, giving Haabu enough of a chance to finally retaliate.

"Foolish human!" He shouted, rushing forward with his hand positioned behind himself. Tien's eyes shot wide open, his crimson aura intensifying as he managed to barely dodge the strike. Haabu wasn't done, however, and used the momentum of the punch to do a 360° in the air, thrusting his tail at the human. Once more Tien was able to dodge the attack, flinging his body backwards, the tail soared over his head, and when he returned to his upright position, the Arcosian's face burned with rage. He let loose a barrage of punches, just as Tien had done before him, but Tien was once again caught off guard by how quick this alien was, and a few of his punches connected, sending Tien flying back a good 20 feet.

'How the hell is he so fast?!' Tien thought to himself, staring down at the now sneering Arcosian. 'I'll have to compensate, I can't amplify my speed at the cost of my power, but...' The three eyed human smirked, baffling the Arcosian greatly.

"What? What is it? Why is it that every time I inflict damage upon you, you smile in such a way?" Haabu shouted out, clenching his fists tightly "Are you a masochist? Do you enjoy being beaten within an inch of your life? Should I perhaps smother you in gifts, would that make that incessant grin go away?" The Admiral fumed, his temper was finally wearing thin.

"It's a nice thought, but the only gift that'll take this grin off of my face is your body lying lifeless on the floor." Tien replied, concentrating his energies. Haabu stared on for a moment as Tien's muscles began to bulge, his teeth clenched together tightly as he began to grunt rather loudly. The Arcosian merely observed in morbid curiosity, interested in whatever it is that this human was attempting.

'D-damn, this technique still requires so much effort!' Tien thought to himself as his mouth opened in a great shout, his voice distorting as two stumps sprouted out of his back. After only a few moments, two extra hands jumped out of the stumps on Tien's back, startling everyone in the area.

"W-what the hell is that technique?!" Vegeta shouted out to himself, many of the other observers had the exact same thought.

For a few moments, Haabu was speechless, but par for the course he regained his composure quickly. "Such an interesting plan. Let's see if that works out for you!" The Admiral shouted, rushing at Tien with deadly intent. Tien used his original arms to block the initial assault, his extra hands deflecting a blow aiming for Tiens exposed face. Haabu loosed an incredible amount of punches at Tien, but his four witches technique seemed more than capable of covering his weak spots.

With the luck of a few ill placed attacks, Tien was able to grab hold of the Arcosians hands, holding them in place with all of his might as his two extra limbs clamped themselves together, swinging down on Haabu as he looked up in what seemed to be genuine surprise.

**FWAM!**

The fists slammed into Haabu's head, hurling him downward with great force, Tien not letting up for a moment as he shot himself down at the falling Arcosian. The Admiral opened his eyes slowly, spotting the advancing Tien.

"Not this time…" He said quietly to himself, thrusting his tail in the air hard enough for his body to dodge out of the way of Tien's attack, sending the human soaring through empty space. Tien quickly changed course, following the Admiral closely, but by the time Tien had made it to the Arcosian, Haabu had already readied himself.

Haabu crossed his arms, blocking Tien's attack, surprising the human for just enough time for the Admiral to headbutt the unsuspecting fighter, causing him to reel back in pain. The Admiral rushed forward, nearly blinded by the sudden jump in Tien's aura as his fist collided with the three eyed fighters stomach. Haabu laughed out for a moment, but ceased quickly when he realized that he had not done any significant damage.

"Good try, but I saw what you were planning." Tien smirked, grabbing Haabu's head with his extra hands and ramming his knee into the aliens face. 'G-gah… that still hurt, even with my boosted defenses...' The human thought to himself, having used the kaio-ken to bolster his defenses to extraordinary levels. 'Even with the kaio-ken, it'll take a lot to beat this guy.'

The Admiral was flung into the air once more, but stopped himself rather quickly. He held his face for a few second, trembling with absolute rage, his face seeming to turn a shade of red as he stared down Tien with conviction. "I'll see you eviscerated for the humiliation you're causing me!" He screamed, charging a few small blasts in his hand. He shouted out as he unleashed the attacks, throwing ball after ball after ball of ki at Tien, who seemed to be having a difficult time blocking every single one, even with his extra appendages.

As the smoke filled up the air, Tien deflected the last of the blasts just in time for Haabu to emerge, grabbing Tien's extra left arm and ramming his fist into the arms bicep, breaking the bone almost immediately. Tien screamed out in pain as he used his original right hand to deliver a devastating blow to Haabu's chest, causing him to release Tien's appendage and reel back in pain.

Ignoring the pain momentarily, Tien launched himself up at Haabu, using his remaining three arms to barrage the Arcosian in powerful punches that the Admiral couldn't seem to deflect. The blows all pressed hard into his body, the strikes each pushing him back slightly as Tien's broken arm laid limp behind his back. Finally, Tien grabbed Haabu's throat with his original arms, using all of his might as he pressed down on the Arcosian's throat. His extra limb grabbed a hold of Haabu's left horn, prying it from his head as the Arcosian struggled to gasp for air.

"N-no!" Haabu screamed, thrusting his fist into Tien's body just as a loud **SNAP** could be heard. Tien released Haabu from his choking grip and flew a few feet away, looking down at his extra hand to see a rather large horn nestled in his palm.

"H-heh, eye for an eye, right?" Tien mocked as Haabu looked horrified, lifting his hand up and touching the stump that used to contain his horn.

"W-what have you done to me?!" Haabu shouted, his hand slowly coming back down and clenching into a fist. "You've destroyed my beautiful horn!" The Admiral's face turned to an expression of sheer rage, this was his breaking point, and Tien could tell that he wasn't going to play around any longer. "RAAAAAAAGH!"

Tien immediately dropped the horn, eyes widening in fear as the Arcosian bared down on him faster than he ever had before. With the utmost urgency, Tien quickly dodged out of the way, leaving a quick afterimage that Haabu proceeded to wail on. Once he realized it was a fake, he twisted around to see Tien's right arm ramming into his cheek, but while Haabu's head forcibly twisted with the attack, his body didn't budge an inch. Instead, he pushed his face back towards Tien, and with a deadly scowl he flicked his tail up and wrapped it around Tien's arm, flinging him around in the air without letting go of the humans wrist. Haabu brought Tien back around after a few seconds, grabbing his throat just as the human had done to him before.

"How does this feel, pathetic insect!" Haabu shouted, lifting Tien above his head with just one of his arms. Tien coughed out as his two original arms clamped around Haabu's appendage. His only usable extra limb attempted to attack, but it didn't have the reach, and seemed to only flail at the air. "I would have been _**merciful **_if you hadn't damaged my horn, now I'll have to _**annihilate you**_!" The Admiral snarled and clamped down on Tien's neck even harder, lowering Tien below him and diving down at the ground.

Tien's body slammed into the ground, Haabu still holding his neck tightly as Tien sat in a crater. His extra arms shot back into his body as the Admiral revelled in the look on Tien's face.

"No, this can't be happening!" Fiore shouted, Cui looking on in terror.

"H-he was too much… Where's Goku or Scar, they're the only ones who could beat this monster!" Cui proclaimed, uncrossing his arms while looking over to Fiore.

"They can't help, if the Admiral orders the ship to fire and they aren't there… We're all dead anyway." She explained, eyes still trained on the struggling Tien.

Cui sighed out in annoyance and grief, clenching his fists tightly. 'Sh-should we help?' He asked himself, hoping that Tien could find some way out of the situation. "W-wait… what's that?" Cui wondered to himself, seeing a glimmer in Tien's third eye.

As Haabu enjoyed wringing Tien's neck, the human's face began to turn a shade of red, causing Haabu to laugh even heartier than before. However, his laughter was cut short when a bright yellow beam shot out of Tien's extra eye, hitting Haabu in the face hard enough for him to release Tien's neck fro…

m his grip and reel back in pain.

Tien quickly shot up and backed away, breathing hard as he rubbed his neck. Up above, both Cui and Fiore sighed out in reassurance.

"No!" Haabu shouted, shaking off the pain "This ends now! I'm through with this pathetic planet and its pathetic warriors!" The Admiral rose up into the sky, eyeing Tien closely "Especially _you_."

The Arcosian warrior raised one arm into the air, energy rushing into his palm until he had a rather sizeable blast nestled in his hand. Tien, still recovering from Haabu's ruthless attack, coughed out and raised both of his arms, forming them into a triangle. He was aiming, however, not for Haabu, but the giant ball of ki he held.

"Say goodbye, foolish human!" The Admiral hurled his arm across his body, sending the blast straight for the three eyed warrior.

"Tri-Beam!" Tien shouted, a square blast bursting from his hand and crashing into Haabu's large ball of ki, pushing it away and up into the sky. Tien laughed quietly to himself as he panted, he was getting more and more used to using that attack, and he was sure now that he could handle a more strenuous blast.

"Wh-what was that?!" Haabu shouted, watching his own attack being sent into the stratosphere. "There's no way you should have been able to stop that attack!" He turned his head back over to Tien, looking more puzzled now than enraged. His bewilderment quickly turned to anger, however, as he decided to forgo energy attacks and just pummel the life out of this worthless peon.

"Here he comes!" Cui shouted, watching as Haabu shot himself down at Tien. The three eyed warrior smirked as he raised his hands in a cross, his body seeming to create a hologram veering off to the side.

"Not one of these tricks again, I'll crush you before you get the chance!" Haabu shouted as the duplicate became less transparent. Tien and his double both dodged to the side, Haabu missing by only a few feet as both Tiens aura's flared up, backing away from Haabu as he turned to rush at Tien again.

"It's too late; you're already seeing double, aren't you?" Tien and his clone said with a smirk, taking the same stance as before as both of them created yet another clone. The Admiral wasted no time and zoomed in on one of the Tiens, smashing into his abdomen with his fist, sending him flying many yards away. The remaining three jumped at the admiral, sending a volley of punches and kicks that the Arcosian was able to barely dodge and block.

One of the clones landed a kick directly on Haabu's back, giving the others ample opportunity to attack. As the Admiral reeled forward, yet another clone crashed his knee into the brutish Arcosians stomach, the original Tien using the opening to send a devastating kick into the Admiral's jaw, forcing him into the sky and crashing down into the dirt.

Haabu rolled backwards and hopped to his feet as quickly as he had been thrown down, frowning as he saw the clone he had bashed away finally return with the other Tiens. "You may think you have me defeated, human, but I could feel those attacks, and I know that each of these copies aren't as powerful as when you were one being." Haabu brushed the dirt off of his badly damaged armor, gritting his teeth and growling rather loudly at the annoyance of such a persistent fighter. "Never in all of my years of service to the Planet Trade Organization have I ever met such a specimen as you. I _was _planning on mounting Vegeta's head on my wall, but now I think I'd rather take _yours _as a trophy!" Haabu shouted, launching a lightning fast ki blast at one of the Tiens. It was a direct hit, sending him crashing off to the side as Haabu rushed at his enemies, two of them taking up a defensive stance as the third flew up into the sky.

The Admiral smirked and crashed into both of the Tiens, neither of them able to hold their ground with their power being cut by the technique. The last clone rushed up behind the Admiral, but Haabu flung his massive arm behind himself, swatting the clone away like a fly. He grabbed the two clones he had bashed into by the necks, nearling crushing them as one of the other clones, in conjunction with the one Haabu had swatted away, rushed at the Admiral from both sides. They rammed their bodies into him, forcing him to drop the other two Tiens.

As the three clones and Tien rushed away, Haabu clenched his sides for a moment, turning to look at them with a stone cold glare.

"W-we have to finish this, and soon." The original Tien said to the clones, each of them nodding in response. They didn't have much time to plan an attack before Haabu was on them once again, rushing at them with the same incredible speed he had shown before. The four of them all dodged to each side as quickly as they could, barely escaping the Arcosian's wrath as three of them jumped into fray, attempting to land a solid blow on the monstrous being. The final clone watched the other three as he formulated a plan, and after a few moments, a bright grin emerged on his face.

"This is too much!" Fiore stated, trying to keep up with the movements of the battle. Cui was too astonished by such a technique to even muster up a few words, and it was clear that even Vegeta was amazed at the level of skill that Tien was displaying.

"Pathetic worms!" Haabu shouted, bashing his fist against one of the clones faces, his tail whipping another across the back as he blocked the thirds punch. Haabu bashed his head into the third clones face, sending him reeling away as he turned and looked up at the final clone. "Given up already?" He asked up to the clone, who shook his head in disapproval.

"Just getting started." Tien replied, the other three clones standing around Haabu with their arms outstretched. Before he could react, the three of them shot blasts of ki at the Arcosian, the energy suddenly colliding with Haabu and causing an unnaturally large smoke to rise up through the area and cover most of the battlefield..

Neither Vegeta, Cui, nor Fiore could discern what was happening as the smoke blew into their eyes, effectively blinding them from the awe-inspiring battle that was going on. The former Planet Trade Organization operatives tried to fend off the continuous wave of smoke, yet it was to no avail as they were rendered helpless.

"W-what's going on?!" Cui shouted, coughing out as the smoke around them began to dissipate. He could faintly feel oxygen begin to fill his lungs once more, the bitter sensation of carbon dioxide beginning to finally simmer down.

From below, through the smoke could be heard a loud, bellowing laughter. "You truly thought that pathetic attack could harm me? You must be more desperate than I thought!" Haabu shouted, clearing away the smoke with an invisible wave of kiai.

However, his laughter abruptly ceased when he looked into the sky to see all four of the clones in the air, each of them aiming directly at him with their hands in the shape of a triangle.

"Ultimate Tri-Beam!" All four Tiens shouted out, each of their auras bursting into a crimson red as the square blasts bared down on his opponent.

"Oh, fuck." Haabu let out in fear, not able to properly defend himself as all four of the blasts came crashing down on him.

A massive explosion shook the area, the wasteland rumbled and rock slides were rampant as the four Tiens panted out in sheer exhaustion. After only a few seconds of shielding himself from the debris of the explosion, Tien couldn't even handle a task as simple as flying, and crashed down to the ground, his replicas merging back into his body.

The shockwave and light from the attack forced Fiore and Cui back, both of them shielding their eyes as rocks and dirt flew past them. Neither of them were expecting such a violent and powerful attack, but now that they had witnessed it, they knew that no one could have survived such a brutal technique.

"What power…" Cui shouted over the sound of the explosion, wishing he could have calculated it with a scouter. "Even Lord Frieza would be reeling from an attack like that!"

Vegeta kept watching on, angered and annoyed that a mere human had been able to outmatch him in terms of power. He was glad to see that smug Arcosian getting put in his place, but it should have been by him! "Damn, I should have tried harder." The Saiyan berated himself, keeping a close eye on the area that Tien's attack had hit.

* * *

"W-whoa, what was that?!" Goku shouted out as the Earth seemed to rumble around them. Far out where the battle was taking place, they could see a great cloud of smoke filling the area.

"I-I don't know…" Scar replied, trying his hardest to sense both Haabu and Tien at the same time, but to no avail. "Both of their energies are gone, I can't sense either of them!"

"That must mean…" Goku smiled and laughed out as he pumped a fist into the air. "Tien did it! He must have used his Tri-Beam to defeat that big guy!" The naive Saiyan's giddy laughter quickly ceased, however, when he realized the the Tri-Beam might have killed Tien ass well.

"That attack has its downsides; you know that, Goku." Scar explained, remembering how much it took out of Tien the last time he used it. "We'll have to wait and see if Tien was able to survive his own technique."

* * *

The smoke and dust rushed past Tien's face as he struggled to lift his head. Not able to see anything due to the smoke, he turned his body to the side and lifted himself up with his right arm. It was a massive struggle, he had never felt so exhausted in his life, but he somehow found it in himself to raise to his feel, albeit hunched over.

With one eye close, Tien watched as the last of the smoke blew past him, and even he recoiled after seeing how much damage and devastation he had caused.

"This is… incredible…" He said to himself as he stared at the massive, square shaped hole in the ground. It was incredibly deep, and as he approached, he dreaded what he might see down in the depths of the crater. As Tien stared down, he sighed in relief as he could see the Admiral's body covered in rocks, and badly damaged. It appeared that he had won.

The others quickly rushed down next to Tien, Cui slapping the exhausted man on the back in admiration. "Great job! I didn't think you had it in you!" He shouted, staring down into the hole along with Fiore.

Tien shot up from the light slap, but shook off the pain quickly. "It wasn't easy…" He admitted, sighing out as he took one final glance down the hole.

His eyes shot wide open.

"Oh, no!" Tien shouted out, backing away as the others heard rocks shifting from down below. Everyone, Vegeta included, backed away and watched as Haabu climbed his way out of the hole, his hand grabbing the ledge of the crater and pulling himself up. They looked at each other in confusion for a moment, and then sighed in reassurance as they witnessed Haabu cough out in pain. His body was mangled, blood was trickling from his mouth and his armor nearly completely destroyed. Even his body seemed to be charred from the attack.

"Stupid… Ack…" Haabu coughed out once more, crawling away from the crater. Vegeta was about to walk over to the Arcosian when Tien lifted his hand in front of the Saiyan.

"No, we need him to call off the attack first." The human explained, causing the Saiyan to grumble in anger. Tien walked forward to the damaged Admiral, kneeling down to his level. "Call off the attack, Admiral, or I'll finish what I started."

The Arcosian breathed hard for a few moments, trying to gather his breath. He looked up at Tien with an almost frightened face, but Tien could still see the contempt behind his eyes.

"O-only if… if you s-swear that I'll-" Haabu coughed out once more as his arm weakly lifted itself, his elbow raising into the air and his palm resting on the dirt. "-I'll get back t-to my ship… alive…"

Tien looked back at his comrades for a moment, noting the disgust on Vegeta's face, then back to Haabu. "Alright, I'll make sure you get back in one piece."

"What?!" Vegeta shouted out, obviously enraged that Tien would even consider such an action "This monster deserves to die, if you take him back to his ship, he'll just order all of his men to destroy the planet anyway!"

The three eyed human shook his head and sighed out "I'll take my chances, Vegeta. We have nothing to gain from his death." Tien explained, helping to raise the Arcosian to his feet. Normally, the Admiral would have never allowed for such an action, but he was in no shape to argue.

Haabu raised his arm to his head and clicked something on the inside of his ear. "Prepare to transport me to the ship." He ordered, the others unable to hear what was being said on the other side.

'_A-admiral! We haven't heard from you since you left the ship. Your vital signs have been so erratic the last few minutes, we didn't know what had happened to you_!'

"I said _prepare to transport me to the ship_." The Arcosian said as forcefully as he could.

'_Ah… y-yes, Admiral, return to the transport zone you were at previously and we'll teleport you up as soon as we can.'_

Haabu released the his finger from the device and looked around at the fighters staring at him. He began to snarl for a moment, but couldn't seem to muster the energy. "J-just take me to where we were transported before…" Tien nodded and rose up into the air with the Arcosian, flying away with him as the others followed closely behind. Vegeta looked up at the Admiral once more before taking off, shaking his head in anger and disappointment.

"Yet_ another_ Arcosian bastard slips through my grasp. One day I'll have your head on a pike, Cooler." Vegeta said to himself as he rose into the air, following closely behind the others so that he could make sure Haabu followed up on his word.

In only a few minutes they touched down to the area that they had teleported down previously, both Goku and Scar looking on in interest.

"Hey, Tien! We were afraid you hadn't made it!" Goku shouted out to his friends, his smile fading as he gave a closer look to the monster he was supporting. "And… and so did he… I wasn't expecting that."

"How did he survive such a powerful attack?!" Scar wondered aloud as Tien released Haabu from his shoulder, the Arcosian barely being able to walk on his own two feet.

"I _am _here, you pathetic ingrates… how rude…" The Admiral cursed under his breath, walking away from the fighters and into the transport zone. He raised his arm to his ear once more, clicking on it. "I am ready for teleportation." The Admiral ordered.

As the others looked on, Vegeta held a stern look of absolute contempt on his face, and as Haabu turned to look at him, he could almost tell exactly what he was going to say.

"Fire as soon as I am aboard."

Tien's face contorted with rage as the Admiral disappeared from sight. Everyone recoiled in horror, and now, it seemed, there was no hope left for Earth.

* * *

**With the Admiral having given the order, will our heroes be able to stop such a devastating laser from destroying the planet? Find out next time on **_**Piccolo's Choice!**_

**Hello, all of my fantastic readers! As you may or may not have noticed, I've been working with another writer named Roketto (A.K.A Ryu no Ohi) on her fantastic DBZ fanfiction, **_**Savior of Demons**_**, a very in depth look into the psych of Frieza after he's essentially been taken prisoner on Earth after he and his father failed to defeat Goku. Working with her and witnessing her closeness to her readers has made me want to become closer to all of you as well, and in such, I'm going to emulate her and start doing a chapter by chapter Q&A (I say emulating… it's pretty much copying, but I don't think she'll mind).**

* * *

_Q: __Wow. LOVED this chapter, Sauce. Roketto editing's helped this chapter's awesomeness improve tenfold; it felt like the good old PC. I really like this new admiral, so we'll see how Vegeta fares next chapter. Great to see this back, Sauce!_

_A: Thanks! Really, it's great to hear such praise from all of you, especially when I'm doubting myself. Roketto has been fantastic working with, and when I told her I needed someone to edit the chapter, she jumped on the opportunity simply because I had helped her as well. I highly suggest reading her work, it may be long, but it's well worth the read!_

_Q: __great chapter how come it took so long to update though ? When do you think you update again this story great and isn't cui purple ?_

_A: My updating schedule isn't really set, I'm trying to get back into the groove of writing, but with classes and work, it isn't easy. And… ehhhhh, I see Cui as more of a blue-purple, it can go either way xD_

_Q: __An interesting chapter I hope you manage to pump out another great chapter._

_A: Thanks for the thrilling review, Dark Domination. Perhaps you should get back to writing your story, Gohan: The Fallen Hero, hmmmmmmm?_

_Q: __Truly a stimulating chapter. The admiral, while a complete a**, seems to have something very likeable about him and the characterization so far seems to be down to a T. This is probably one of my favorite chapters so far. Keep up the awesome work!_

_A: Glad to hear that chapter 40 was one of your favorites! I really enjoyed writing the Admiral, and I hope that he's just as awesome in this chapter as in the last. If you hadn't noticed, I really enjoy writing asshole characters, hehe._

_Q: __I have to admit that I loved Haabu's character. While he's undeniably evil, his attitude is simply awesome. It's rare to burst out a laugh while reading your story (don't get me wrong, it is pretty awesome, but funny moments are rare, or mostly drowned by the tension), but this chapter managed to do it on more than one occasion._

_I somehow doubt Vegeta will do much against Haabu even with his Oozaru form, but things sure took an interesting turn._

_A: Man, good job guessing that even in Oozaru, Vegeta wouldn't be able to do much. I really loved writing Haabu's character, as I said in the last response, but I really want to reiterate it because I'll be sad when he's not around anymore. It's not often that I include an OC that people actually like, and even rarer when I include one that even __**I **__like, so I'm pretty proud of how I handled him so far. And thanks for the compliment on the humor aspects, I figured the story could use a few, what with all of the depressing moments. _

_Q: __Oh boy, this is going to be interesting, let's see the arrogant Arcosian Admiral deal with an Oozaru, seeing at the transformation increases one's power 10 fold, let's hope Vegeta wins._

_A: Sorry if you were rooting for Vegeta on that one, but he just wasn't enough with his brute strength. Tien might not have been able to pull out a victory if not for his many techniques, which I felt gave him the edge over Haabu. In my mind, superior techniques will always triumph over brute strength as long as you're in a comparable range of power. _

_Q: __Great to see another update. :)_

_Regarding Vegeta using his trump card, what form is Haabu in? The mistaking him for King Cold kind of makes me think he could be in the second restricted form that Cold first appears in canon, meaning Vegeta doesn't have a hope in hell if he transforms. Or he could be in final form but physically huge I guess, if he is aligned with Cooler perhaps he has trained his final form? It is a little ambiguous, I don't recall a mention of horns or anything._

_That's the only criticism I have of this chapter, maybe you mentioned it but I missed it?_

_I'm quite happy Jeice didn't go through with killing Yamcha for Vegeta, Cui being keen to see Vegeta pounded into a pulp was a nice touch too. Overall great chapter, I can't wait for the battle next time._

_A: I don't believe I mentioned anything about his form, which was a mistake on my part, but I was implying with his massiveness that he was in a 2nd restricted form. Now, you might be wondering why he didn't just transform into his 3rd or final form, but the way that Arcosian transformations work (at least according to Roketto, who I wholeheartedly agree with) is that the transformations are somewhat like a Super Saiyan transformation, and you need some kind of trigger to unlock it. Obviously Frieza had already unlocked his, as Cold definitely wouldn't have let his son rule the galaxy without having access to his immense powers, but in the case of Haabu, he simply doesn't have access to those forms because he's never had a reason to need to. _

_Q: __Well I am very thankful to awake from my turkey coma and find PC has updated! Had me worried for a while... I can't wait to see how Vegeta's gt inspired transformation stands up to the talkative Admiral. I like his character so the pre-battle survivability tactics is very appreciated._

_I don't see any editing issues so Roketto's assistants is definitely an asset to this story. I may just check out this Savior of Demons._

_hmm... I wont flood your comment section with PL numbers but... seems Haabu's (current) power is similar to Cooler's 4th form while his looks are similar to King Cold (or Freiza's 2nd form). If Tien is confident he can keep up with Vegeta's full power (and Ozaru Vegeta is around cooler's 4th form) then he's about as strong as base Goku (w/ kaioken) was in the cooler movies._

_A: Actually, that transformation wasn't inspired by GT at all, but a lot of people assumed that it was. I honestly just came up with a form I thought looked cool and added it in, and by some strange coincidence people thought it would look similar to Super Saiyan 4. Funny how things work that way, huh? In any case, yeah, Roketto always does a good job, writing __**and **__editing, and I'm glad to have her as a writing buddy. I really hope you checked out Savior of Demons, because it really is a great read! Also, if you want my opinion on the strength of Haabu, Vegeta and Tien, I'd say that they're all comparable to 3rd form Frieza. Haabu obviously had the edge in terms of brute strength, but Vegeta (with Oozaru) and Tien (with 15-20x Kaioken) were slightly weaker. Like I said before, Tien's techniques were really the thing that won the day here._

_Q: Aaaah... if this chapter was edited by Roketto and Cui said that Habuu was a modified Arcosian so it's a spoiler about Roketto's background about the Arcosian race and why Cold's clan is so strong? They're genetically modified Arcosians then? And good chapter pal, it is good that you finally released it but I can't see how Haabu is gonna keep his word if Oozaru Vegeta manage to defeat him but still, if Haabu is the same as Frieza, Cold and Coola he still has 2 more forms at least, and the Haabu seems to be even stronger than Frieza somehow(dont recall Vegeta's power level here), so Haabu in his final form will be so strong that Vegeta will need to transform into a Super Saiyan or to that weird SSJ4-like form he was about to achieve on previous chapters. Anyway, I'm looking forward for the next chapter._

_A: Hehe, maybe a minor spoiler at best, but I'm not saying anything further on the matter. It's not really for me to say anyway, Roketto helped a lot on the creation of this Arcosian, and she's the one with all the knowledge on the goings on of Arcos, so I can't really say much. In any case, yeah, like I said before, Haabu is stuck in his 2nd restricted form because he doesn't have access to his 3rd or final form, and because of that, Oozaru Vegeta and Tien were able to fight evenly with him. _

_Q: Good ass chapter love how Jeice made a very manly decision probably the best fanfiction out their i wish dodoria and zarbon were alive but cant win them all guess!_

_A: Thanks for such high praise! I honestly don't think I deserve it, but then again, once I start re writing some of my earlier chapters I might see where you're coming from. You know whats strange is that I was thinking the same thing about Zarbon… I miss writing him, he's just a great character! If only I could bring him back somehow xD_

_Q: Love Jeice decision fuck Vegeta though that transformation thing sounds cool i sense Vegeta becoming Piccolo's luitenant after gohan probably betrays him._

_A: Psst, don't tell any of the Vegeta fanboys or fangirls, but I don't really like Vegeta either xD And as for your prediction, who knows, anything is possible. Just have to find out in the future, won't you!_

_Q: I loved this chapter. This fanfiction is great, it feels like I relive the whole DBZ series in a new way. Great job. Keep up the good work._

_A: Thanks! That's all I really wanted to do, was to recapture the old magic of the show and make it into my own story. I'm really glad that you feel that way, makes me feel like getting to work on this next chapter as soon as possible!_

* * *

**Written By: Saucemonkey**

**Edited By: Roketto (A.K.A Ryu no Ohi) & Super Vegetarott**


End file.
